Friday June 20th to Sunday June 22nd

Once again I am just going to keep this as short as possible.  I am getting lazy about typing everything and wish I could just do a talking blog, because I love to talk, but they don’t have those.  So Friday was pretty cool.  I had the opportunity to go to a place called Joy Hospice and shadow some doctors with Merin.  I was a little bummed though because I just shadowed some medical students instead of actual doctors.  I was there all day long.  I woke up at 6 am and was there by 7:20am and was there till about 5pm. It was nice being there but I think it was too long for me to be there to just shadow students that are still learning.  After shadowing all day, half of the team joined Merin and me for a meeting with Dr. Jan about doing some additional projects with her.  She wants to be involved in an immunization outreach, painting a clinic, and taking part in a student health evaluation at Child of Hope.  When we were talking about all of these projects I was getting so excited!! I can’t wait to be a part of each and every one of them; next week is going to be a busy week for sure!!

After the meeting we all went to dinner at this place called Enduro.  We are in charge of our own meals Friday dinner to Sunday Lunch which is kinda of a bummer but whatever.  The restaurant is really good!!  It is catered to tourists so it’s a lot of American food which is great.  Rice and beans and posho and beans on a regular basis is kinda boring so I def like having that restaurant to eat at over the weekends to get a break. After dinner we had to go straight home because it was getting close to curfew.  We got home and just chilled and that was that. 

Dress code for Islamic University 

Saturday was a pretty eventful day!! We woke up pretty early because we had to meet with a lady named Sarah who works at a place called IUIU which stands for Islamic University in Uganda.  She is a really good nurse in the Mbale community and needs our help in the future teaching family planning classes so we had to go to a training to get the rundown of what we would be teaching.  Here in Africa people just pop out kids like it’s nothing and that is a big problem because a lot of families are not financially stable for more kids.  So Sarah teaches family planning to help the people in the community realize that and help avoid that situation. It was at an Islamic nursing school so we had to wear the traditional head dress when we went so that was pretty cool. 

 After our meeting with Sarah we had to hurry home because we were going to a wedding.  One of the partners we work with had a friend who was getting married and he was from the UK and needed “Muzungu” /white people to attend the wedding in place of his family.  So we got invited haha I’m not white but I was still allowed to go haha the wedding was great!! We got to wear the traditional dressed called Gómezes and I am a true African but this just made it even better haha the wedding was really long though but I kind of expected that. Also the whole thing is a joke.  So the wedding was set up at the bride’s house and there were tents and so many decorations and it was beautiful.  The grooms side (us) were waiting outside and could not be let in until they cut this ribbon, I’m not really sure the meaning behind that.  Anyways we walk in and the bride’s family sits on one side and the grooms family sits on the side and there is like a 20 feet gap in between the two sides with a blue tarp.  So we sit down and somehow I end up sitting in the front which was kind of awkward.  I felt like I shouldn’t be sitting there but the spokesman on the groom side said it was fine.  So as we sit there are dancers performing and music playing and it just made me so happy?  I just love African events.  So we have a spokesman and the bride has a spokesman.  Basically the groom came to find the wife and ask for her hand in marriage. But here’s where the joke comes in. So the bride’s family pretends they don’t know who the bride is when the groom is asking for her.  So the brides spokesman brought out like 6 groups of 5 women and was like are these the girls you are looking for and of course it isn’t.  It really makes no sense to me but it is really funny.  I am going to try to explain it so hopefully it makes sense.

Wedding attire :)

So after we decide that the bride is the bride they sit her down in the front of everyone and her bridesmaid comes to the groom’s side of the family and “find” the groom and he joins her in the front.  Then people from the wife’s side give the groom a gift and then the people from the groom’s side give the wife a gift and those people so happened to be me and some of my other group members.  We thought we were going to just attend the wedding but we were actually in it.  It was really funny but pretty cool.  We had to do a little shuffle around a circle and then bow down to give the bride her gift.  It was funny though because when we were doing the little shuffle thing no one was on beat but me so everyone on the bride’s side was just dying in laughter, I’m actually pretty sure people were crying because they were laughing so hard.  So after we gave her gift the ceremony kind of wrapped up and then it was time to eat.  The food was good but a little sketch so I made sure to have a coke with it.  I learned the first day I was here that coke has something in it that basically kills everything in your stomach. So words to the wise, if you eat something weird drink coke!! After the wedding there was an after party but we couldn’t stay because we had curfew.  I was a little bummed but it was a long day so I was ready to go home.  Fortunately, someone from the wedding was also leaving so we got a ride home.  The taxis suck so much, so anytime we can ride in a different vehicle we take advantage of that. We were all pretty tired when we got home so we just chilled, watched a movie, and just went to bed. It was a solid day!!

                

Practicing my basket carrying skills 

Sunday was awesome as well!! We woke up at around 9 or so got on a taxi, rode to the middle of nowhere and fed baboons.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever done.  I am adding things to my bucket list as I do them.  One you don’t really see baboons and two you don’t get to feed wild ones!! It was a little scary at first because people on the taxi kept telling us to be careful because they could attack you. So I was freaking out a bit.  It took about 20-30 min for us to actually get a baboon to let us feed it but once that one baboon let us I think like 5 more joined the party.  It was amazing!! I got really good pictures from it and it’s a pretty cool story to brag about when I get home.  I can’t wait to get home and just share all the cool things I was able to do while I was in Africa!!

Coolest thing ever!! 

               

I am just loving it here and am going to have a really hard time when it is time to come home.  I know that if I didn’t have other obligations I would definitely be staying here for another month.  The people are so friendly, it is beautiful here, and I am just loving all the service and help I am providing to people in need.  There are hard moments but mostly good and I am so glad I have been given this opportunity to be here. 

Until tomorrow J