Oh baby babyyy

The health clinic is looking real nice. We went back just for the day on Friday to put the finishing touches on it...aka cement the floors. I found these adorable children.

These are bricks for the clinic to ventilate it? We are true Africans

Here is a bridge we cross on the way...made of trees. Super rad. Super unsafe.

Passing cement toooooo, you guessed it, cement the floors! It's so cool seeing all these bricks up because we helped carry those!

cemented hands are happy hands

We've done well.

We are obviously working really hard in this picture. At this point we were done and we were forced to pretend to do more work because a villager wanted a picture of us

Here it is! We cemented two rooms out of five. So what's left is to cement the last three rooms and put the roof on!! So exciting!! Thank you to everyone who donated, honestly you will have a lasting impact on the people of this village. We have meetings constantly with the people who help build the clinic and they are constantly thanking us. But we couldn't of done it without the people that donated!

Can we just talk about how freaken adorable this child is?! He honestly makes my heart melt. I could not stop looking at him the whole time we were waiting to leave. For some reason he reminded me of Jake (my younger brother) because he was so shy but so adorable. It's honestly creepy how obsessed I am with all the little boys I see here. I have a weird personal connection with them because I grew up with younger brothers?? I want to be their older sister/mother and just babysit/take care/raise them. I am so close to bringing a child home you have no idea. I may or may have not looked into it.

And then we have me. This picture has a story, I don't post pictures of myself because I like the way I look people. I'm in Africa...not always looking my best but I accept it and build health clinics. Anyway,  on the way home from the village we got dropped off like 20 minutes walking distance from our house and Ashley and I felt like running so we ran home. Scariest/best decision ever! It was starting to get dark (one of the reasons we started running) and like when we were sooo close to our house we could literally not see anything. We were laughing so hard. Then some random African was playing Chris Brown outloud on his phone and we sprinted to the soothing sound of that beautiful voice and made it home. I walk in the kitchen and find Sam just finishing dinner and he started laughing at me saying I look vey interesting. I tell him the story and he laughs again and takes a picture of me on his phone hahha. You can't tell in this picture but I knotted my skirt at the top because it was falling down when I was running. I run in skirts and TOMS. I'm a pretty big deal.

We came home to an extravagant meal consisting of....avacado salad, cabbage salad, spesketti, potatoes, meat sauce to go with the spesketti and fried rice. Ohhhh baby it was sooo good. One of the best meals yet! Sam spoils us.

Sam and I pinky promised. Pinky promised what you ask? Can't tell. Pinky promised...to make the promise more official because he didn't believe me, I took a picture of it. That's all you need to know...

Medicalness

The past couple days have been full of Ashley, hospitals, medicine, malaria and infested wounds. It has become more apparent to me how much I don't want to be involved in the medical field whatsoever. On Tuesday I accompanied Ashley at the Naboa Clinic where she fills prescriptions and does lab tests. The medicine is provided by the government and they only get a new shipment every 2 weeks so when they run out, they run out. Come to find out, patients don't have to pay for medicine. 

 This is a bench outside of the clinic where the patients wait.

 Here we have the sink. Can you believe these are the conditions of a health center? A sink that looks like this, random posters taped on the wall, dirt and bugs all over the ground. I mean, it is better than no clinic but even though it is something, it's still not that great.

 This little girl came all by herself to the clinic because she wasn't feeling well. The kids are so independent. They just know where to go when they don't feel good. They don't ask their mom to take them, they just walk all by themselves to get the treatment they need. 

 Just to take a lil break from medicine, let's talk about how we beaded yesterday! I love these women! They still have a lot of work to do as far as bead quality because most of their beads had like bugs and dirt in them but that's why were here, to teach them how their beads are going to sell. We decided to paint paper for them when we got home and it was hard! I couldn't even imagine them painting paper on a dirt floor! We felt so rude for telling them it wasn't good enough when we were having difficulties!

 I got to know Elizabeth really well while beading. First off, she is gorgeous. I asked her about her family and she told me she has 6 children with two different fathers who both left her. She also had a child pass away when he was one year old because of Malaria. So sad. She said life in Namatala is hard because when she doesn't sell her tomatoes and greens, she can't feed her family. And I'm sure you can only eat tomatos and greens for so long. She continued to say when she can't feed her kids, everyone is hungry she feels bad when her children come home for lunch in the middle of school and she doesn't have food to feed them. Honestly I was on the verge of crying like 3 times. You would never guess that she lives this kind of life because of her presence. I asked her what makes her happy and she said when her family has food. Really? Like seriously. 

 So today was heart wrenching. It literally took everything in me to not go on a corner and cry my face off. If you read Ashley's blog like I told you to, she talked about this little girl, Silvia who's feet were being eaten by rats while she sleeps. 

  One foot showed improvement from when Ashley last treated it but the other foot was worse. Parts of Silvia's big toe were chewed off. Although she was very composed, you could tell she was in so much pain. I held her hand why Ashley put carbon proxide on her nibbled apon foot. Apparently she didn't have shoes so the school provided her with some. She now sleeps in them but I'm going back later today for beading and I am going to give her a pair of my socks. 

This whole "doctor" thing is just too much for me to handle. I really admire people like Ashley who can deal with healing wounds and attending to the sick. I just become too emotionally invested and it grosses me out. Having these experiences have really put things into perspective for me. I have realized how blessed we are in America to be able to go to the store to get medicine and go to the hospital to get treated. We just have such easy access to everything. Life is so easy in America. We don't have to worry about rats eating our feet off. We don't have to worry about getting the flu and it maybe killing us because we can't afford to buy Theraflu. I know some people in America can't afford things, but the majority can and their conditions aren't as substandard as they are in a third world country. 

On a lighter note...

watch this

Games

As I was getting ready for church, I pretended I was a muslim for 3 seconds. 

I actually got asked to teach Young Womens and was not looking forward to it. I felt super intimidated teaching African Young Women about Repentance esspecially because I assume they are perfect and that have nothing to repent of so I felt awkward about it. I was also afraid I wouldn't be able to explain the concept as well as I wanted to. There is so much to say about it, it was hard to narrow it down! I guess I am just insecure about my teaching skills haha. It ended up not being as bad as I thought. If they didn't get anything out if it, I sure did. I found so many good General Conference talks that pretty much changed my life so it's all goooood.

I was getting annoyed with my braids because they hurt my scalp so I made the decision to take them out. They didn't even last 24 hours but I was satisfied with having them that long haha.  

Tyrel and his friend Emanual came over later that night to play games and it was really fun. Tyrel said to me: "you are quiet at church but at home you are crazy" Hahaha we had fun

African Woman Up In Hurr

Soooooo Saturday was an eventful day. I got my hurr braided and that was a 4 hour process. I was going to go all out and get fake hair braided in like the African women do but some other volunteers did earlier and said it was very uncomfortable. I obviously didn't want to deal with that so I decided to just have her braid my real hair. This was the lady Sam our cook introduced us to. She was so adorable. Are you confused that their are hair salons in Africa?? Cus I would be haha

 The process

 I tied my hair in the front of my face like so and they thought it was pretty funny

 I can't decide if I look African or like someone who lives in a trailer park. 

(as Richard and Lara would say, W.T.) hahahha Regardless, how cute is my new African dress?! This is the one I got at the trade show that I traded for Caitlin's skirt 

 Later that night we all went to a local African club (mom, don't freak out, everyone was there and we were protected by Freddie, the guy we met the first day we came to Africa) and attended Miss Mbale!

 First time I've worn mascara since I've been here

 The beautiful Miss Mbale contestants. 

This was quite the experience. First of all, we heard about it from Freddie who was hosting the pagent. Second of all he asked Holly (our country director) to be a judge hahaha so that's mostly why we went. It was so interesting, the contestants walk worse in heels than me and it's obvious they have no modeling experience whatsoever. So mean of me but it's the truth. It was no Saddleback College Fashion Show (the only Fashion Show I've been to) or America's Next Top Model (the only modeling show I've seen) but it was entertaining. And these women are obviously gorgeous. While we were waiting for the show to actually start which took about 2 hours, we  got some dancing in which always makes me happy. I love myself a good dance party. In Africa.

Trade Show

So apparently my last post was too revealing/depressing? I didn't mean to come across like I was sad, I just was letting you know my thoughts....I am happy! Development work is so rewarding even if it is complicated! It was just deep thinking. I know that's not really my style of blogging so I guess I shall save that for my personal journal. Moving on, I got pictures today so this is fun!! I went to the outside market and attempted to look for Sam our cook that works at a barber shop when he's not cooking for us food but that failed. He was going to introduce me to his friend that braids hair cus I want my hurr braided! Mallory drew a map and being a Rushton we all know that number one I suck at maps and number two I am terrible with directions. I can't even get around Rexburg Idaho (where I have been attending school for the past two years) let alone an outside market in Africa. Hahahaha I was like asking everyone if they knew Sam and showing them the map Mallory made me. It was hilarious. It took a good half hour to finally find where the shop was and turned out it was closed. (I was with another volunteer mom, I wasn't alone) That was quite the adventure. I also went to an African trade show which is equivilant to a swap meet. I have become quite an expert at bargaining since I've been here so I got many good deals on many great items!

I traded this lady Caitlin's skirt for an African dress that I will be modeling at a later date

 I bought some nice things from this lady with my professional bargaining skills

 Oh these men are quite the story...so we came to the trade show after church last Sunday cus we thought it was only there for the day. (come to find out it's a week long thing but it's only once a year)  Since it was the first day of the trade show, we were both of these men first costumers so they were pretty much willing to give us what we wanted for whatever price we asked for. Super awesome. When we came back today they totally remembered us and were so excited to see us and were of course hoping we would buy more things. The guy standing next to me was telling me he could never forget me because of my laugh and my smile oh and lets not forget my beautiful face...borderline creepy? Oh well. Only in Uganda do you get good prices on things because first of all you are a Mzungu and second because well you are just overall beautiful (thank you Richard and Lara) hahahaha just kidding. But not really because that is seriously why I got a good deal haha. He wanted to have a formal sit down and have a conversation about who knows what but I said I wanted to look around hahaha. Good times.

 Oh this is a good story too. So I was willing to trade my shoes for some Ugandan sandels and the woman, Carol accepted my offer. Score! As I was looking at the sandels, this man, Isaac who turns out to be her brother starts asking me where I am from if I am married. I reply no then he proceeds to say, "oh, I'm searching"I just start laughing and say well I'm not so good luck to ya! Carol is just listening from a distance and starts laughing. I asked him if the only reason he asked me that is because I'm a mzungu and he of course said no no no and I told him I didn't believe him. I then continued to ask if I was an Ugandan woman, if he would have said the same thing and he said yes. I just laughed and said yeah right. We kept talking about why Ugandan men are so obsessed with mzungu women just because they are white and how they don't even know us or our personality and all that fun stuff. Somehow we then get into the conversation of Obama. He goes, are you voting for Obama? I replied, um probably not, I think I'm voting for Mitt Romney haha and he goes oh, does Obama believe in same gender marriage? I reply, I think so? Then he goes do you? I proceed to tell him my feelings towards it and then Carol chimes in and goes, if Obama believes in a man and a man that he must like a man hahaha and I go but he's married to a woman and she shakes her head and says it doesn't matter. haha Conversation like this one actually happen a lot here in Uganda. As soon as you tell an Ugandan you are from America the next conversation is always about same sex marriage/attraction. Since Ugandans are huge Bible believers they obviously don't agree with it..."because in the Bible it says man and woman" They are very interested to hear our opinion on it since we are surrounded by it. It is just interesting that is the main thing they know about America besides the ever obvious, "you have so much money." This one Boda driver that drove me home once was convinced that every single person in America has money and I tried to tell him there are poor people in America just like there are in Mbale and he honestly didn't believe me. He kept saying, no no no and I was like really? How the heck would you know, you've never even been there hahaha. Good times. Good convos. 

After my trade show experience, I taught nutrition with Kara to a group of women in the Namatala slum. It's challenging to teach these women because I don't really know if they grasp the importance of what we teach them. Also, they are the poorest of the poor. Dirt floors, stick roofs, a piece of cloth as their windows/doors so it's awkward to say you have to eat x amount of fruits/veggies/meat/dairy/fats a day when they can't even afford to buy their family posho. (the cheapest staple food in Uganda) In addition, since they like don't have jobs and have nothing better to do with their lives, alcoholism is a huge problem. They brew their own booze. Millet is actually pretty cheap which is how they make it and they ferment it and they give it to their children and it's just not alright. These are the women of families we want to give water filters to but not if their going to abuse themselves ya know? And that's where the culture thing comes in if you read Ashley's blog. Where do we draw the line? It's so complicated. Kara and I talked after and thought it would just be a good idea to teach a lesson about how damaging alcohol is to your body and hopefully that goes over well. We shall see about that. Overall, it was a good day. I skyped with Richard which is always a treat and the team ended the night watching Baby Mama. Cheers. (P.S. sorry about being in like all of these pictures with these people I met, I just looked at the post and realized it probably would have been better if I captured just them cus I'm kind of distracting and awkwardly standing next to them....note to self for future picture taking with people I have future great convo with)

Pondering

This post isn't going to be exciting as the others. Mostly because there aren't pictures so I apologize in advance. Not to get everyone worried about me or thinking I have Malaria (which all the Ugandans think you have when someone says they don't feel well) but I haven't been feeling that well the past couple days and have been lounging around house pondering life. It is not fun not being able to go out and do things but it's better than getting more sick. I actually feel much better today then yesterday so that's good. 

As I've been sitting around at home I've been thinking a lot about being here and what I have accomplished and what I have yet to accomplish the rest of my time here. It's hard for me to put into words so I'm going to direct you to Ashley's blog who is a volunteer here and who I've become really close with. She words everything perfectly about what I've been feeling. It's kinda long but it's worth reading because it is honestly exactly what I've been thinking. 

Click here to read Ashley's blog that I couldn't have worded better myself

But seriously, read it. It's not that hard to click on that sentence.

As far as learning about myself, I've realized that I can't change the world. I can attempt to, hence why I am here but like Ashley said in her blog, it really comes with the people wanting and realizing that they have potential to change the way they live. I've also learned about what I want to do with my life and my passions. I love helping people but to the extent of making cookies for them haha. Serving these people is complicated. Not in the sense that I can't do it but in the sense that development work is a lot more complicated than I thought. Finding new projects or finding things that the people need is difficult because it takes research and change the mindset of the people. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather be here attempting to help then be at home working but as far as doing this as a career I think I'll leave that to someone else. Throughout my life I would love to continue to help volunteer with various NGO's. 

As far as my future career goes I think I've figured it out. I really want to look into opening my own cafe/bakery/restaurant. I know I have so much more to learn about cooking and baking and I am willing to learn more about it by possibly going to culinary school?! I've always had a passion for cooking and baking and since I'm a huge believer in following my dreams, I really think I could do it. I mean, I am in Africa and that was a dream of mine sooooo I can do ittttt!! If opening up my own restaurant is too far fetched then I would like to own a franchise maybe? I just really want to be in the restaurant business. I went to this restaurant when I first met the people I'm in Africa with and went you bought a meal, you would feed a person in Africa. How cool is that? I know, awesome. I love that idea and think that would be awesome to do something like that. I love that being in Africa has made me realize this. That was one of the reasons why I came here besides saving the world, to get to know myself better and really figure out what I want to do as a career. Who knows, maybe within the next couple months I'll come across a project that will change my mind but as for now, that's whats up. 

I love being in Africa gaining a different perspective on a different way of life and seeing another part of the world that Heavenly Father has created. The Ugandan people humble me so much and I love the people I'm living with. I have learned so much from both groups of people. I have realized even more how blessed I am to be able to be born into a loving family who is supportive. How blessed I am to have amazing friends. How blessed I am to be born into a country that is free and developed and all that other stuff that I can't explain but have realized through living in Uganda. I love my life and I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for allowing me to be an instrument in his hands by serving his children in Uganda, Africa. Speaking of spiritual stuff, I have always thought about/considered going on a mission but since I've been here it has become apparent to me how fast that opportunity is approaching. I turn 21 in March. Seems far away but if I am serious I need to start preparing. I would really love going on a mission. I couldn't think of any greater thing than teaching others about something that has brought me true happiness. I just need to for sure figure out if I am committed which sounds so bad but if I go I need to be 100 percent in ya know? Life is good. I am so blessed. I am in Africa.

Mulalu!

In Africa, we have fun. Today Carlee and I purchased a bunny. She had this inside joke with Jan and said she would get her one before she left but in a joking way but then we actually went and bought it. Some woman living in the slum was selling them. Don't know how she got them but they were there and we purchased one for 5,000 shilings which is equivlant to approximately two dollars. 

Please try to ignore my "I look like I just woke up because I did" look.

 Mulalu means crazy in Luganda, when we put the bunny in my new African bag it tried to escape therefore we named it Mulalu. The name didn't stick for long. Jan, Jennilyn and Josh decided to rename it "J" because all of their names obviously start with J and the bunny was a parting gift for them.

I helped Sam our cook make dinner which took about 3 hours. But it was the best 3 hours of my life. We seriously had so much fun. I could honestly not stop laughing. He was like "Kelsey you are cool, I like you, you are funny and crazy." Hahahaha ahhhh I love him. I may or may not have told him to come to America in 5 years to work at my resturaunt/bakery/cafe called Kelsey's Kitchen. He may or may not be dead set on seriously coming to America in 5 years to be the head chef of Kelsey's Kitchen. Looks like I got some planning to do when I get home, eh? (Hm apparently I'm canadian) Here I am rolling Chipote (a tortilla like food not to get confused with the resturaunt, Chipotle)

Here is Sam cooking the Chipote 

To celebrate our teams last night together with everyone we made cookies!! Who says you can't make cookies without an oven or measuring cups. NOT US! We improvise with the stove. Thas wasss uppp

Since the first 6 weeks is ending, some of us are leaving which is actually not the greatest. We have all become so close and it's going to be so weird having 3 people gone. Here is our last group picture of the whole groupppp :( Have a nice life Josh, Jennilyn and Jan. Remember that time we lived in Africa together for 6 weeks?

Progress

We visited the village yesterday and the Health clinic is coming along real nicely! We only stayed there for the day to check out the work that's being done. Hopefully it will be close to finished by the next couple weeks...

Sara made us tea her signature tea. I'm not really a tea drinker but this is one of a kind African tea and it's delicious. It's made from lemon grass and it's SOOO GOOOD

This is Joseph. I was teaching him how to whistle

On the walk back from the village we spotted these piggies! How cute are they?! Now I know why Charolette was obsessed with Wilbur!

Church!

One of the best parts about being here is church. The members are so dedicated and most have them haven't been members for very long. I sat next to this older couple and they had only been members for 4 weeks! Tyrel has only been a member for a year and is so dedicated that he's going on a mission. 

Here is Tyrel and I sitting in the "chapel." It's basically just chairs and a podium at the front and they actually have a microphone, speakers and a keyboard. 

Last group picture with everyone before Josh, Jennilyn and Jan leave :( 

 We've become so close with the members here and they have taught me so much about dedication to the gospel. They walk very far distances just to come take the sacrament. I am never complaining about going to church ever again. 

Hike to Wanale #2

It is Josh's last weekend with us so 4 of us plus David decided to hike to the waterfall behind our house again! This is the one I posted about like the first weekend I got here! This time it wasn't as hard because we walked up the path we walked down last time which was ten times easier. 

This is the best part, getting to the top and playing in the waterfall

 Kara's looking real hot in the back there haha

 David was suppossed to be taking a picture of our hair flipped but he decided to take one like this...

...and he cracked himself up because of it. His laugh is seriously hilarious. I love him.

Josh had to take over and take the picture haha

 BABES

 Even though this time the hike was easier, I still managed to get a gnarly blister because of my dumb new chacos. I bought them specifically for hiking and they hurt me. Rude. By the halfway point up the mountain I seriously couldn't bare to wear them anymore because they were blistering my feet so bad.  Walking the up the rest of the mountain (as well as the whole way down) barefoot wasn't as bad as you think. And I mean if the Africans can do it, why can't I? Right?

It is honestly so beautiful up there. You can almost see all of Africa. Almost. Haahaha

David: "I'm just gunna jump and meet you guys down there"

 Namaste. 

I was actually feeling peaceful at this moment and didn't want to get out of position after the picture but the other insisted we continued on...lame.

I love being in Africa, I've never been in a more beautiful place in my life. It has really made me appreciate what a beautiful world God has created.