Sunday, November 17, 2013

            Two nights ago we had an awesome bonfire. Beer was available for purchase, making it even more awesome. They had Club and Nile, so obvi I tried both. I prefer Nile so stuck with that the rest of the night. It was 3,500 shillings for a beer, which is like $1.40, and y’all know I can’t say no to that kind of a deal on beer. The bonfire was so much fun; it was nice to just be able to relax all together and have some fun. I mean two full days of classes really gets to ya. I’m obsessed with everyone and I can’t wait for our journey together. Each person has a unique story that lead him/her to this point in his/her life and it’s been amazing getting to know everyone.

            Saturday we had a survival session. They taught us laundry, how to bucket bathe, use the pit latrine, and light a kerosene lamp. Kulika, fortunately, has showers (although there’s not usually hot water), but it’s highly unlikely we’ll have a shower at site, so we’ll have to fetch water to fill a basin and bathe from there. It’s too bad it’s not big enough to sit in it, like a bathtub. Instead you use your hands or a cup to get yourself wet, then soap up, and repeat. I knew I should’ve cut all my hair off before I came, because I’m going to need a lot of water to wash my hair. But I shall find a way. Kulika also, thank god, has toilets. I’m not ready for this whole pit latrine thing. I’m going to wait until the very last minute that I can to use one.

           

Johnson teaching us how to bucket bathe

            

the culprit

And onto today. . . it was our day off! It consisted of me sleeping in, which is actually a little difficult in Uganda. Our training center, Kulika, has an organic farm that includes produce and animals. Sounds great, right? It is, except for the roosters. I don’t even need to set an alarm anymore because every morning at 5:30 the roosters start crowing. For those of you who’ve never lived on a farm or around roosters, it’s kind of impossible to sleep through them, at least for me. So I slept in as much as I could and decided to get up and be productive. I went to try to use our wifi to get online to send a few emails, but the wifi is slower than molasses so I gave up.  One of the trainers planned a trip into town for us so we could visit a supermarket and get anything we need, aka food. Kulika is off the road away from everything so finally being able to go into town and see what it was like was awesome. I love where we’re staying because it’s safe and so nice, but I also loved being able to be exposed to what the town life is like. I rode in the front seat on the way there and not only am I not used to the driving on the left side, but driving here is crazy! People drive so fast and are swerving around cars and there are bodas everywhere. The supermarket was just a little store with things like snacks, sodas, soap, toothpaste, etc. I got some chips, cookies, chocolate and a cold pop. A nice cold Coke had never tasted so good.  It was at this time I saw this little baby at a store next door staring at us. Due to my love for babies, I went over to him because I wanted to play. He seemed a little shy so I gave him a couple cookies so he’d like me. He ate them (after giving one to his mom, awww) like he’d never eaten a cookie before and my heart melted. I wanted to steal him and take him back, but considering I still have over two years I decided I should wait until it’s time to leave to steal a child, so I can get out of the country without anyone knowing. KIDDING. But kind of not really. The trip to town was awesome and I was feeling good when we got back, so I figured I’d keep being productive. Taylor, my roommate, and I then ventured out with our basins and a week worth of clothes and attempted some good old-fashioned hand washed laundry. It went well, besides the fact that I ruined a white shirt – one of my favorite shirts, too!! Their soap really makes colors run and I placed a just washed red shirt near my white shirt and because I’m still working on ringing things out well, water from the red shirt ran onto the white shirt. I couldn’t get the red stain out, so I’m debating washing it with my reds next time and just dying it all red. Although knowing my luck it would just turn out absolutely terrible. So maybe it will just become a new workout shirt!

           





For the rest of the afternoon some of us took a tour of the grounds of Kulika. Our wonderful security guard, Obed, showed us around. First off, it’s huge. There’s so much land! And apparently there are monkeys, so it’s my goal to see them. Everywhere you look it’s just green and beautiful. I can see why Uganda is called The Pearl of Africa. And then it started raining so we rushed back, grabbed our clothes off the line, and headed in.

And that was my weekend!