Bunabuyoka!!

These past couple days have been life changing to say the least. Get ready for it. You should seriously read this, not just look at the pictures because it was the greatest thing of my life.

Monday morning the whole crew (except four) journeyed back to the village where we are building the health clinic and the roof/floor to their school...we were planning on staying the night so we had to bring our mattress with us! (If you can even call those mattress', they are basically just soft pads haha)

 Luckily we didn't have to take our stuff all the way up to the village...people from the village came down and carried it for us. We felt really bad but they insisted. We planned on taking Bodas up the steepest part of the mountain but that didn't really workout. Ashley and I got on one and the hill was so steep, the Boda couldn't even make it up the hill and we ended up sliding off the Boda. Every steep part from then on we had to get off the Boda and walk up which was frustrating considering that's why we took the Boda in the first place!! Oh well, builds character, and leg muscles.

When we arrived, we were surprised to see that the community was already setting up the land where the clinic is going to be built!!

We stayed in a "house" in the village which was actually pretty nice. (for a village house) It had a cement floor and a tin roof. The family we stayed with was super nice and welcoming. They speak English but it's very simple and limited so it's kind of hard to communicate with them. We hung up our misquito nets and such and they made us a wonderful meal of posho and makote (not my favorite but it's the only thing they eat/have so I was grateful) The rest of the day consisted of talking to the community about details of the health clinic.

The night sleep was hilarious. Nine of us were squished on 4 mattress pads in a confined space. I don't think any of us slept that night...Here we are in the morning of our great night sleep...

The bucket is food we brought from the house: bread, peanut butter, bananas, jam and our favorite treat here: shortbread cookies

 We woke up nice and early to the sound of a rooster at 6:30 am and started the day teaching P.E. to little 4 year olds. It was the most cutest thing of my life. We did jumping jacks and played the hokey pokey. We also taught them English and they didn't understand what was going on half the time but that was the beauty of it. Next up was manual labor. I seriously have been looking forward to this the whole time I've been here (in Africa) as weird as that sounds...during the kids break at school, they walk down the hill to go get stones for the foundation of the clinic, that's how bad they want it. You could never get kids to do this in America...

 It was super motivating and humbling to watch these children have so much dedication to their community. Half of them probably don't even know what is going on, but they do it because everyone else is. I love them so much. I didn't get any pictures of the treturious/steep hill I hiked up and down for 2 hours straight carrying stones in a sack but just trust I didn't stop and was completely in the zone. The following picture is the only one I found of myself and if you look closely you can see the sweat coming down my spine. There was a guy we met named Henry who came up to me after the manual labor and said how envious he was of me that I kept going up and down the hill with no breaks and I motivated him to keep going...he said something like he was thinking how an American woman was passing him up and he was ashamed. Haahaha I just laughed and explained to him this is the most useful I've felt the whole time I've been here and it's the only task I've felt like I could do well so I was going to do it good and not stop until the deed was done. 

 Two of the volunteers taught a health class in the afternoon that I sat in on it and took pictures of them and these precious ones sat by me...

 Tessa and Tabby (the women that got us involved with this village) said that they wanted some people to stay an extra night so we could interview families to see what their views/needs/expectations are about the health clinic. Four of us stayed and when school was out, we played with the kids that live near the school until it was dark. It was so freaken fun. I could not stop smiling. They taught us their fun games and were obsessed with the camera, it was so cute.

It started raining so we all piled in the house we were staying in and they literally sang songs the entire time. It was incredible to see how content they were just singing songs when it was raining outside. They don't have electronics, all they have is each other. 

 This little boy, Enoch has quite the story:

His dad is an alcoholic and his mom doesn't know how to take care of him and 3 of her other children. He has lived in pretty much every house in the community because his mom doesn't know how to cook so he just mooches off other families, but can you blame him when he is neglected by his family? The best part about him is he is so happy, he always has the goofiest smile on his face. You would never guess he is neglected. Tessa and Tabby adopted him and took care of him for a while and brought him back to live in the village and he kinda just does his own thing but sleeps at his house. He is the first one to arrive at school and the last one to go home. He is the happiest little boy I have ever met in my life and he has quite the dance moves too. 

 I am seriously obsessed with these children. The little girl in the blue dress (Juliet) was constantly following me and holding my hand. The little girl I'm holding is her sister and she would just carry her on her back everywhere she went.

This is the little boy (Derrick) that is in my facebook profile picture who I found the first time I came to the village. He was super quiet when I first met him and I finally made him talk!!! I did the batman voice and he copied me and it was the funniest thing ever. I got him to say "Hey, I'm Batman" and then I got him to say his name and my name then he ended up just coping everything I said. He is the cutest child I have ever encountered since I've been here and he was literally latched onto me for a good 3 hours and ended up falling asleep on me. Oh and I found out, he's an orphan and some random lady took him in who takes care of 8 other children so he's not loved the way he should be which is why he loves being held. I went through the longest thought process of how I could take him home with me and raise him then realized I couldn't take him to Idaho and started thinking about all these other dumb realistic things. URG I just want to bring him to American and clean him and give him clean clothes. 

(sorry for the creepish face I'm making...just ignore that and focus on his adorableness)

 This is Vicki and her family is the one we're staying with, she speaks the best English and she loves us.

 She took my camera and was loving the concept of taking pictures of everything.

That night, we got treated to beans instead of matoke and it was a real treat. Our faces lit up when we saw beans in the pot...Sara (Vicki's mom) is the woman who made us dinner and let us stay at her house and she always had the biggest smile on her face. That night, she made us African tea...I'm not really a tea person but this was the best tea I've ever had. It was lemon grass tea and you add sugar to it and oh my gosh I'm craving it right now just thinking about it. Mmmmmm...

That night since there was only four of us meant we all got our own mattress pad and we all slept so well. Jan woke up and said, "There's a snake in my boot" for some odd reason and I replied back, "There's a roach on your net" hahaha it was really funny. Guess you had to be there...

Oh I didn't even talk about the bathroom facilities. It is literally a hole in the ground and you have to squat. Luckily the hole is in a 20 ft by 20 ft brick structure with a tin roof and it has a door but even with all of that, it's still quite awkward....but that's why I came here! To have the experience of going to the bathroom in a hole hahaha. We did some more stone carrying that morning and Henry and I went strong the whole time and he again mentioned to me how impressed he was by me. He made me feel like superwoman haha but I can't take the credit. Sounds cliche, but honestly it's God. He has given me the strength to be here in Africa and to carry those stones down the hill so many times and ahhh I am so grateful. Oh let me also mention how faithful these people in this village are. I honestly don't know how they can have so much faith when they have nothing. It's what they do have that makes them so grateful. They are just grateful they have food for that day. They always pray and they are the most honest prayers I have ever heard in my life. Tessa said a prayer before we went to bed one night and it was like one of the most spiritual experiences I've had since I've been here. It is truly unbelievable how humbled this village has made me and how I've realized how blessed I have been to be born in America. It is mind blowing how we are all people just trying to figure life out living in different parts of the world. Life is truly a gift from God and I am so grateful that am able to be here and gain a 

different perspective on life.....

I can't wait to go back there on Monday to actually start building health clinic and the roof/floor of the school! I also can't wait to go back and see the kids and be obsessed with them and ahhh I love this village so freaken much and my life and there is so much to be thankful for in life!!!!

Oh if you'd like to donate  to help build the school roof/floor and the health clinic it would be very much appreciated...we can't build it without your help actually...haha..but like really...

* P.S. M.J. the cat I took a picture with in a couple posts ago is dead. He got eaten.

Sipi Falls

Well this weekend wasn't the best or anything...

The whole team (minus a couple of people) hiked to two waterfalls through the jungles of Africa.

It was the most beautifulist event of my life thus far...Who knew falling water could be so captivating?

Just before we got to the first waterfall...

Just in a cave underneath two waterfalls...

 Why not go play in the waterfall?

 The more we hiked the more beautiful it got...

 Kara and I

Don't let Jan and I distract you from observing that nice contrast between the water falling and the lush green bushes/trees...

 This nice young man along with many others welcomed us on our hike to the second waterfall. His name is Richard and as soon as he told me that, my face lit up and I of course mentioned to him my father's name is Richard. He got a chuckle out of that. That's the farthest we got with conversation because everything else I said, he didn't understand. The language barrier sucks. He helped me the whole way on the hike. He was in front of me the whole time and kept looking back to check on me. He took my hands multiple times to help me up some steep parts...it was the best. I felt safe with him all because his name is Richard. haha

 Like are we serious right now? It's freaken so beautiful here, it's unreal but not really considering this is a real picture I took with my camera.

 Just posing by this massive waterfall....can we just point out Jan's massive/muscular arm please?? 

 And the picture of the day goes to.....

 Seriously though, that hike was like the best thing ever. There was a point where we hiked like in the waterfall...there was water spraying everywhere and you couldn't see anything but it was coolest thing everrrrr oh, I actually have a picture of it...

 By the time we got back into town we were STARVING and considering we barely have any food at our house and Kara's uncle's "50 mile rule" (you can go get something to eat if you are 50+ more miles from your house) we bought ourselves some Rolexs. Let me just explain to you this delicious snack...veggies (bells pepper, onion, garlic, tomato) scrambled up with some eggs rolled in Chipotte. Basically like an African breakfast burrito you could say? Oh man it is yummyyyy. and not to mention, super cheap. We're talkin 1500 shilings...which is about 75 cents.

Mud Monster

For once, we didn't have any meetings or projects to work on today cus it's the end of the week and we are still trying to figure out when we are starting all of our projects...in fact, one is coming up that we are really excited about...

So remember that village that I was and still am obsessed with? We are building a health clinic there. You would not believe the little brick dungeon these women give birth in. I am not looking forward to birth already, yet alone having a child in this brick "house" with a dirt floor and no bed. I don't know how they do it. They have their child on a dirt floor and they have a midwife assist them that has no medical experience whatsoever. I don't understand. So, we are building them a health clinic. We are also going to train some of the people so they know how to actually deliver a baby and do other doctor stuff like give shots and stuff. The people are so grateful and aren't even expecting it, they just as excited as us about it! It's going to take a couple of weeks to build so I'll be posting pictures of the process. It's gunna be so awesome. We are currently making our donation site for the health clinic, so if you would like to help, it would be greatly appreicated. This village deserves it so much. 

Here's another pic I found of us in the village...

So today we worked of curiculum for youth programs to teach communication, conflict resolution, goal setting and all that fun stuff to random schools. As we were creating this, I realized I could never be a teacher. It's hard to write a lesson plan esspecially when it has to be 60-90 minutes long. Not to mention we will be teaching African children who are already so surprised when they see Mzungu's walking around yet alone us teach their class. Should be interesting. 

We needed to get out of the house and we heard of this cheap restaurant in town that was super cheap so we checked it out..

This is seriously what we eat everyday. The tortilla stuff is my favorite thing here: Chipottie. It's a mix between a thick tortilla and thin pita bread. It is delicious. Scuma is the green stuff that kinda tastes like Spinach that's pretty good and the rice is rice which is also quite delicious.

 Oh and let's not forget about the beans. These beans were actually the best beans I've had so far, besides the kind that our chef, Sam makes. But they came pretty darn close.

 

If you were to guess how much this whole meal was, what would you guess? Like 5 bucks maybe? Or more? Well (dun, dun dun) it was a total of.....ONE dollar. Which is equivalent to 2500 shillings here in Africa. I paid one American dollar for this whole meal. Deal? oooo yeah. 

This woman was our "server" and she loved that we were taking pictures and wanted to be in one. 

So great.

Best story ever: Kara (my new best friend here) and I were feeling obese by all the food we ate today so decided we would go on a walk around the neighborhood and ended up finding this village right up the street on this dirt path. We walked on it for a couple minutes and found all these children playing in this field and of course as soon as they see us they all run up to us and stare. We wanted to play with them so we just thought it would be fun to start chasing them. 

They loved it. We were all laughing so hard. At one point, we were all holding hands and running in a circle. It rained earlier that day (like always) so it was super muddy and what does Kelsey do? 

Totally eats it, in the mud hahahahah all the kids including me, busted up laughing and I got up and the kids couldn't decide whether it was funny or not so then I get back in the mud, put war paint on and start chasing them again. Hilarious. It was just about to get dark outside so we start walking home and as Kara and I walk back through the village to get home, everyone is staring at us first because we are mzungu's and second because I am covered in mud. Many people would laugh and others would say "Oh I am so sorry" hahahah and Kara and I would just laugh. Oh man. I love it here. I can't wait to go back and play with those little kids. That was the experience I've been waiting for. 

Everyday just keeps getting better and better. 

Life is so good. I love being here in Africa.

 P.S. This is our cat, M.J....I'm risking getting rabies because of my love for cats. But we got him when he was a kitten and he was living in a house so there is less chance of him having rabies right? Right.

Sthuper Duper Exthided

Can I just express how distraught I have been about not having my own specific project....

Don't get me wrong, I love being here and I have already learned so much about my self and the African people here and the volunteers I am living with....

I've just been like feeling like I want to have my own project that I get excited about everyday, rather than waking up wondering what project I am going to get on board with that day. I talked to Rebecca (one of the country directors) about it and we kinda talked about what I like to do and what I am interested in and I told her that's kinda why I am here, to figure that all out.

After talking about it for sometime, she came up with the genus idea of documenting the entire summer in a creative way...I went to bed that night really thinking about it and ended up staying up all night thinking about what I could do. 

I documented a picture of me brainstorming because I was convinced this was something that was going to be real good and I couldn't stop smiling....

So I ended up not sleeping because I kept having ideas come to my mind and I ended up coming up with this huge idea about how I could document the summer for the benefit of the summer and of how people like you guys back home can be inspired....

I talked over my ideas with Rebecca and talked with my bunk buddy, Mallory because she was feeling the exact same as me, not having her own specific project and wanting to do everything but wanting to do something that she could be in charge of. Come to find out we both have a love for people and getting to know their stories so we took a walk into town and starting feeding out ideas off of each other....in conclusion we came up with the coolest plan ever. 

Here we are celebrating our creative brains with a piece of cake that wasn't even that good at 

Chat and Chino

I don't want to spoil it but here is a whiddle baby idea of what's happening...

Each week we are revealing a Ugandan on a blog type of website that we meet 

and telling their story to you in a super creative way.

In addition we are going to spotlight volunteers and have project updates every other week. 

Sounds broad, but trust me, it's going to be incredible. 

We have all the details and everything pretty much figured out sooo this isn't just something I am saying because it's a good idea. It's actually going to happen and it's going to be so good.

We are really excited about it and this way we can really be involved and participate in all the projects while working on ours by documenting the whole summer and inspiring everyone at home.

Get ready. 

P.S. If you are confused, just be patient.

Extreme Makeover: Village Edition

Today was the best day so far. That sentence doesn’t even do its justice. These pictures don’t even do their justice. AHHHHH I seriously just want to live in Bunbuyoka Village. 

So to get there we take an hour taxi (a sketchy bus) ride full of about 25 people that should only be holding 15 then we pile out and hike for an hour to this village that changed my life. This picture was taken halfway to the village. The hike was full of heavy breathing, breaks in the shade and many looks from the fellow Ugandans who’s second time they’ve seen white people. 

As we are walking up to the village we are lead in by fellow village men playing these rad African drums. We walk to the village and are greeted by the most precious children singing a welcome song to us in there adorable little african accented voices. They put on this whole show for us and had like 5 songs that they sang to us. It was the best thing that has ever happened to me. We went into the village school and had a huge meeting with all the teachers in the village school. All the teachers welcomed us and said they prayed for our safe journey. Ahhhhh, everything about it was so humbling. I can't even explain this experience good enough...

So in the meeting we evaluated what needed to be done in the village....The team that came last year built a school and through the past year, the villagers expanded it but then stopped because they didn't have the budget to complete it. Soooo we decided we are going to help them finish building the school and in addition build a health clinic. They have no health/first aid/hospital type of a thing in the village and we felt like that was super important. There is so much that goes into building something like that but we figured out all the details in the meeting and it's going to happen, more details on the project coming later (we might need donations) The hardest part about getting all the supplies there is that the village is so isolated and high up in the hills that it's gunna be tough getting all the building supplies there but we're gunna do it because they deserve it and that's why I/we are here!

 After the meeting some village women made up a huge meal of posho (flour and water dough type of a thing that has no flavor), matoke (mashed up banana type thing), chicken stew stuff (I didn't touch that cus it creeped me out), rice and avacado. It was a feast. It was so nice of them to feed us when we haven't even done anything yet. They have so much faith in us and that is really inspiring....
We ate with our hands. Doesn't it look so appetizing?? 
This is pretty much what we and Africans, well Ugandans eat errday.

This is us chillin with the children after we ate lunch 

 As we were about to leave I found this precious little guy, Derrik who was super shy and I tried so hard to get him to smile and finally succeeded! We are the only Mzungus these children have seen besides last year when the other team went so I think that was why he was so shy......how freaken adorable is he tho? I mean really...

This village visit is what I have been dreaming of. This is why I came to Africa.