SA FAR(I) AWAY - 7th inning stretch

this should have been posted two weeks ago... but when you read it you will understand what has kept me from ending the tales of my trip.

the story continues.......

its 8:30 pm on the 30th of July. I am HOME!!! I have been in the vicinity for a few hours but sleep calls me - and for a change - i can't fight sleep.... i actually will let it claim me.

There is something to be said for those words. I...... AM...... HOME! the place where things feel familiar and comforting - like your favorite slippers. Where you can reach for the light switch and lights go on, the refrigerator is full and COLD and keeps lots of goodies in there - most HEALTHY, some not so much, but there none the less for my choosing at any second.

I had an eventful trip home... could an eventful month end any other way??? The drive from Jinja to Kampala was nerve wracking and calming . Nerve wracking because the roads are going to kill me, and calming because i am on my way home. John, my driver, pointed out things for me as we drove that i didn't notice during the drive into Jinja a month ago. I also asked about a lot of things i wouldn't have been brave enough to ask a month ago. I got to the airport in one piece and had my last bumpy, pot hole ridden ride. (also known by the Ugandans as "the African Massage")I had a bit of time to kill before my flight, 3 hours, but it took all that time and then some to get checked in and actually ON the flight. The African summit ended over the weekend and EVERY summit leader person... was leaving at the same time with excessive luggage and families. HOOOOOOOLY SMOKES! The heat was ungodly with all the bodies and the cramped spaces... i almost passed out - literally not figuratively. The flight left almost 2 hours late which meant i would miss my connection to NY in Dubai. That did not please me in any way shape or form since i had already been up since 4:30 am on the 28th - (which is actually 8 hours forward in time from NY) and it was then 2:40 am and i had to wait 6 hours to get onto the next flight to NY. Finally i am on the plane to NY at 7:50 am - the flight leaves in 40 minutes. I switched my seat with the woman behind me as she wanted to sit next to her husband. I sat next to some guy who couldn't sit with his legs in his own space. i have a bruise where my leg kept getting crammed under the arm of the seat because i kept moving over. I watched a bunch of movies on the 13 hour plane ride home but for the life of me i cant remember the names of them..maybe by the end of the blog.

My skin feels weird. Literally. I cant explain it , YET! i dont know if it comes from the fact that i have been taking vitamins regularly since i left, all the water i have been drinking, the different water i have been showering in and the soaps used, or perhaps it is the lack of "processed & junk food." i am sure it is a combination of all of it.

While i was in Uganda, i was not feeling well. The last week and a half left alot to be desired in the health wise forum. Not that it was really bad, but for a few days i needed to sleep, DESPERATELY. Those of you who know me , know i don't sleep - not much anyway so that was a problem. I also had a huge rash that went up the back of my calf for about a day. I think i was bitten by some bug ...but that went away more quickly..... I would sit through classes , barely, and then escape to my hotel right after. My appetite went out the window and good old fashioned coca-cola was my friend to keep my stomach where it should be. After a few days of sleeping alot things settled a bit and i felt..... better, not great but better. I didnt think i needed any urgent medical care....so onward i went. the last few days people started leaving so every other night we would be saying goodbyes. I hate goodbyes.... hate them hate them hate them. (Perhaps it is why i am rather reclusive... i dont like to say goodbye... sooooo, i dont hang around with anyone to whom i have to say goodbye. lol.. such introspection... i am beginning to scare me!!! ) But back to the story....so its now friday morning and i have a meeting that i need to attend.... i have 150 kids i need to costume by a week from today for a dance recital. YUP! nothing like jumping right into work asap!!! no time for jet lag, being sick, settling back in to a routine - nada! So, off to work i go..... where i am out in the heat here... which is different from the heat in Uganda. There it is their winter. A mild 70-75 degrees. They thought i got sick because i was walking around in a tank top and no jacket. The summers there are HOT!!! and this was nothing to me. Here it is 85 and humid and i am in an attic, where it is easily 10 - 15 degrees hotter and digging through costumes. Again , heat , heat, heat...almost passing out, literally. Hummmm, twice in two weeks......seeing a pattern?
Well, i get home about 3 after an afternoon of this and literally fall into bed. by 7 pm i am burning up. Not just hot but a blistering, solar flare hot. I have no thermometer, as i havent been sick in centuries so there is no cause to record temps. But even i know my body is at an uncomfortable level of boiling from the inside out. I am sleeping under 2 down comforters and its 85 and humid out.... i am freezing and shaking, i can hardly stand and the walk to the bathroom is torturous...and i am very thirsty...and forget to stop in the kitchen for water. I am to tired to walk back the 30 feet. My lips feel like the sand on the beach in the heat of summer. I still cant get the energy up to walk back to the kitchen. All that runs through my mind is Brigitta who told us she had contracted malaria even though she was taking medication against it. "it feels like flu symptoms" she says. Weak, thirsty , muscles hurt....only really bad flu like stuff.....! In my head while huddled under the covers i am deleriously thinking "Murphy's F'n Law follows me AGAIN and maybe i need to go to the hospital" - i know malaria can kill you if not treated - but i never did ask just how quickly it would do that. I guess i just wasnt that motivated or MORE that i just couldnt get up the energy to move. I made it through the night obviously, and called my DR. Of course THIS is the saturday they are closed getting the office carpets cleaned and he is not on call.....some other Dr. is. Well i dont like Dr's as a general rule... and in a few you will understand one of the reasons why. So then i call the infectious disease Dr.... whos office SAYS they are open on Saturdays at 9....i try again at 9 10, 915 - no answer. I can drive to the office it is just on Broadway by CVS - it is now 945 and still no one in the office. I call again and get service - tell them i need to speak to the DR... they say he will call me back. I wait in his parking lot hoping it will be soon. Five minutes later i am talking to him telling my symptoms he says go to the hospital ER. YEEEECCCCHHH! not the way i had planned on spending my day - you never get out of the ER in under 5 hours - even for a paper cut.
AGAINST my better judgement i go to the ER. where i fill out tons of paperwork... then the triage nurse asks me how long i have had these "migranes?". "Migranes?" i ask "what migranes?" He says "the ones you say here - have you had them before?" Now, i KNOW i dont feel well, and i do suffer from cluster headaches which are like migranes - only worse... but i certainly didnt write that! So i tell him to read again a bit more carefully. Which he does .. and then turns to me with an attitude like i am nuts.... (stop laughing) and says "and WHAT makes you think you might have Malaria?????" - like i am some hypo-condriac (sp?)!!!! THAT response already has my teeth on edge. Calmly i explain i have been in Africa for 4 weeks......then the look changes from oooh, not crazy hypo-condriac person.. to hummmm, maybe she night have it, lets call the infectious disease Dr. to see whats what! DUUUH!!!! After 2 hours i am shuffled back to a little cubicle where i am told to put on one of those oh, so fashionable gowns... which of course i wont - put it on i mean. The new nurse from ER comes in and says that i HAVE to put it on because the DR wont see me without it.....so i throw it over my shoulders.... "Now its on me" i say! ... and the Dr. walks in... he doesnt seem to have a problem with the way i am wearing the gown. I explain all the things again... they take 4 , count em, 4 bottles of blood. NOT vials... BOTTLES! they insert an IV because i am dehydrated. So, then more waiting begins...i hear the ER Dr talking to my infectious diseases Dr. ... then i wait some more... i notice the IV solution isnt going down... its been in 45 minutes and the blood from me is seeping back OUT into the line.... :::: thinking to myself... "this shouldnt be happening - should it??" hummmmm, so i grab the IV off the hook... and wander around looking for ..... "anyone , anyone".... lol... (extra points if you know the movie that's from) finally i find the new ER nurse... show her whats not happening and what IS happening... i can tell shes not pleased that i am wandering around like that... TOUGH!!! it's Hour 3 & 3/4 and i haven't heard anything from anyone .... except that they want to keep me overnight for observation.....NOT HAPPENING!!!!
so, i wait another little bit and the ER dr comes in and tells me that while my "white blood cell count is good .....my other thing that is like white blood cells is not. below 75 is good over 100 is bad - i am at 92. So i am more bad than good!? And we are surprised by this exactly how?? lol...
Dr cutie pie wants me to stay so they can run more tests.. HA! nope! they arent going to give me anything because they dont know what kind of infection i have ... so.. all in all they pumped abotu 5 glasses of liquids into me, something to make my stomach stop roiling and they still cant tell if i have Malaria......SO, i signed myself out! Why did i waste my time there anyway? I had an appointment scheduled for the following Tuesday with the I/D Dr. for a follow up visit and a booster shot so i could have waited... no one seemed to concerned if i had Malaria or not ... so i guess i wouldnt have died by tuesday.
Monday comes - i am feeling a bit low again... but i have to work you know Friday creeps up quickly. Tuesday comes, still yucchy, work, work , work, run to Drs in the middle... he calls the hospital for the malaria results - after ALLLL those bottles of blood .... THEY NEVER RAN THE TEST FOR MALARIA!!! Can you believe it? ( Murphy's having real fun with me now.) So he tells me to go to the lab and have a blood test done AGAIN. Perscripition in hand i go to the closest lab. It is ten minutes to 3 the lab says theyre open til 3 - good. I go in some "voice" from behind the wall says theyre closed. I say ... "the door says youre open til 3".... voice says " yes, but were doing paperwork and were done drawing blood for the day"...me, who is loosing faith in the medical field by leaps and bounds...as i am leaving i says "BUT the door STILL says OPEN and IS OPEN". As i get down the hallway i hear the door lock and the sign being turned. I call my DR.. tell him the lab is closed he will not get results tomorrow - i will have to come back in the morning. DAMN!!!
I text a note to a friend of mine... venting my frustration... he mistakes it for being directed at him, I try to smooth it over telling him it wasnt directed AT him but TO him... initially, it makes me sad that he took it that way - but i have my own things on my mind and just want to get home to sleep - i cant worry about him right now. I have to worry about if i have anything i can spread to anyone...so i cant even go to talk in person - i am sure he will understand. Later. Maybe. Then again maybe not. When i am feeling better and i can explain i guess i will know.
Wed morning comes... i am up early(sad for me) - need to go to the LAB again... and then get to work. Spend 1/2 hour in the lab waiting to be called in for the blood letting. when i finally get called in - they look at the script.....and tell me they dont do that there! WHAT do you mean "you dont do that here??????" this is a blood lab place thingy! "Youre kidding me right??? " No the lady behind the THICK plexi glass states. I think she is the woman from yeterday but cant be sure... I would reach THROUGH the plexi if i had strength... but i dont... I am drained, mentally physically, emotionally!!!(I didnt want to worry anyone so i didnt mention this to any friends or family - so, i have about a brain full of stress more than my poor braincells can hold a this point) i want to sit on the floor right there and scream and cry and rant like some psycho!! THIS is not, not, NOT really happening , is it?? i am sure i am in some bad Nightmare on Elm Street loop.... ( if you dont know what i am referring to - go watch the movies) I call the I/F Dr one more time.... he says i have to go to the hospital and they will do it - IN THE ER!!!! AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!! i tell him - in not so many words that it will have to wait i need to get to work.. he says to call him later and tell him when i am going. I says "Ok" .
I go to work, go home feed dog, let dog out.. its about 430... i head to Hospital and call DR... he says his parter will take care of me. So i go to the ER and have to fill out more paperwork... I wait 45 min or so... see triage nurse... she too looks at me like i have sprouted wings ... "why are you here for this??? we are so backed up it will take hours to see you for this.....come back at 1030 pm!!! or 11 ish. The look on my face must have told her i wasnt going any damned place any time soon. She called the I/f Dr on call... didnt get anywhere... i called my IF Dr AGAIN....told him the story ... he says (now hang on to your hats folks ) NO, you need to ADMIT yourself into the hospital , THEN , my partner will see you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well at that point everything just let loose.... i was like a possessed person, speaking loudly into my phone at him..... "Are you fucking kidding me ????? Admit myself for a blood test that YOU should have ordered when i was here on Saturday for 5 hours. i AM DONE. D.O.N.E !!!!!! Done with hospitals, labs and you !!!! If i have Malaria, you will know when i am DEAD!!!! and i hung up the phone and went home to bed! You just cant make this stuff up!!! I still have the bruise on my arm from the IV drip.... it had backed up out of my vein when i took it out and left a bruise inside my elbow the size of a golfball....
(The upside of being sick is, i lost 25 lbs while i was gone. I had to go buy new pants... and even now some of them are falling off.... ...another 25 and i will be at bellydancing weight.... which i have until April to get to and plenty of time for the gym.....because for my birthday i am going to bellydance in the bandshell at Tanner Park..... but that's another blog......)
I went to work on Thursday and Friday... everyone , miraculously, was costumed and cute. They gave me flowers.... and made me come onstage... I am not liking the spotlight. I like to be unseen... melt into the woodwork. deep, deep down little embers burn in the bottom of my heart though ...happy someone took the time to think of me and let me know it and more importantly let OTHERS know it - its a rare thing. I tell people they are doing a great job or are missed all the time. It is nice to hear it!

and now i will go on to the next adventure.......in a new blog......stay tuned!!!

love you all....
B xxxo

SA FAR(I) AWAY - 6 degrees of separation

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom" Marcel Proust ♥ (I borrowed this from my friend GIA although she was GLORIA when we first met...lol)

Things i will miss from Uganda .....
Peter, Innocent and Maxwell... all very nice young men who have been our interpreters. They have been fun & eager students, as well, of everything we have taught.
the slower pace
the eager minds just wanting to learn everything i can teach.
the frog songs at night
Grace - who has let us use up the back of his shop as our workspace as we S - P - R - A- W- L out all over, never loosing his sense of humor about it. The fact that he speaks slowly and has a great voice and softspoken manner ( maybe thats good for his congregation) not to mention a great smile and dimples... no wonder Tara likes him!
the breakfasts laid out every morning... fresh watermelon... i LOVE watermelon. I could eat it all day long everyday and never get tired of it..... sometimes its so good i even swallow the seeds.
Things i wont miss from Uganda
those vulture/damned trash birds still give me the willies.::::shuddering:::::
the red clay dust i have inhaled,
the decomposing trash smell
the bathrooms or lack thereof.
the news on tv.... i just saw about a plane crash in Pakistan... and while i PLAN on being around to annoy all of you for a long time... i am going to tell you what i told everyone whenever i tried some new dumb thing... If i die... tell everyone i loved them.


i dont have time to finish all the things i wanted to write because we lost power, BIG surprise, and my car will be here any minute.... there will have to be another entry...later kiddos....

SA FAR(I) AWAY - fifth of scotch

..... Harry, the daddy long legs spider sharing my quarters, and i have come, almost, to an end. I dont mind him sitting quietly in the corner of my bathroom. He does his thing and every evening i discuss my days journey with him. Harry patiently listens - i dont have to censor my words or thoughts as i might with human beings. (Although i am sure some of you reading my blogs are POSITIVE i have no censors in my thoughts at all) I dont know, actually, when he arrived.. or if he was there all the time. He has been a constant in my otherwise rather rock- slide type of a journey. I worry when/if someone will not appreciate his usurping the space he hogs for his own domain. Will SOMEONE come along who hates spiders and squash him? Will they not see the wonder in the web he builds?... although his housekeeping, leaving all the carcasses of past meals dangling like flags in the breezes, leaves a bit to be desired, we are kindred of sorts...happy in our solitude, creative, and leave a mess - be it physical one or someone shaking their head at my quirky observations of life and thereby creating a whirlwind (what exactly is that anyway, a whirlwind? is that more like a baby tornado...graded like the rapids... a grade 1 or maybe a grade 3? Wheras a grade 5 or 6 means hold on to your socks folks you're in for a damned bumpy ride!) of turmoil/upside down/vivid - ish images in their otherwise stable/neat/organized minds?

Every time someone in our little group leaves we go out to dinner and everyone gets to ask the "leaver" a question. Tonight is my night but many of the people i have worked with this whole month have already departed. A few leave today to do the safari i started where i started my trip . I didn't go to dinner with them last night - i dont like the goodbyes and i have already said goodbye to to many!!! I remember almost everyone i have ever met - no matter how long ago or for how brief a moment. A lot of the time, i can remember entire conversations, that i am not sure if it is a blessing or a curse. Many things remind me of people i havent spoken to in years or ever again after that initial conversation. They are filed away in the back of my overfilled mind to pop out every now and again like old jack in the box toys you pull from the attic storage.
We wonder if our lives have an impact on others - that ripple effect has worked. Hopefully i have taken the best of everyone whom (or is it who - that is a rhetorical question. My father,the English teacher, used to try to drill that into me - i am afraid after all these years i still dont know. Ok... maybe i do a little...but the thought just ran through my head - so i put it down. Obviously no censor on there! lol) i have ever met and passed it on along the way.

time to go .... off to work... :::singing from Les Miz ::::: ONE MORE DAYYYYYYYY!

SA FAR(I) AWAY - fourth dimension

The average age for Ugandans living out in the huts and beyond... is 40....mortality rate is high.

Many of my students last week looked older than they were. 3 were handicapped with leg problems and one was deaf. Emma - short for Emmanuel had one good leg & one leg that just doesnt do anything. He gets around with a long 2 1/2 inch thick 5 ' stick or a "wheel chair' that is peddaled by his hands. He was 28 but looked much older until he smiled. Miriam has no use of her legs and scootches backwards around on the floor with her arms pulling her weight around. Erina has one leg that works but she uses one arm to pull the right leg forward (therefore being bent in half) and drags the other leg behind her. Her upper body strength is amazing. Both women use a machine that has to be cranked by hand. We taught Emma how to use an electric.. but his shop has no electricity so he has a treadle machine he uses. We printed Certificates of training that the students can hang in their area to show people they have skills. They were surprised. Life is good, they laugh, make jokes, love their children and families and hope for a better life and more money - sounds like most Americans to me.

We have decided my shelf life here (being that i am over the dreaded age of 40) has gone way beyond expired and its a good thing i am coming home. lol...


Ugandans will not tell you to leave... ever.


Last night i was going for a walk to a local restaurant. Every Hotel here has a guard shack at the gate. Cars have been "wanded" because of the summit... but the Guards know me... how can they not? I am the blondest woman around with green eyes......i stand out a bit here..... and i talk to everyone every morning and evening. So, i need a little direction because i KNOW the ones in the book are backwards so i just need a simple "left or right" answer. The three stooges a the gate all argue as to where the place is i want to go. One offers to walk me there... one gives me directions i KNOW are wrong.... the other offers to tie a string to me so i dont get lost.



At dinner we were 11 women and Jamie. Poor guy! 2 of the women are nurses teaching sex ed to the ugandan girls and women. Some of the questions they had received from the women were just to hard to comprehend actually coming out of a womans mouth in this day and age. Its almost as hard to believe as the fact that poeple mar their children because there are some cultures that still believe in "virgin child sacrifices". Yup, you read that right.



did you know - the better educated the women are - the better the economy is in an area?



i was talking to a guy building some houses here. He said the Ugandans dont tell everyone their business. He had a man working for him whose 2 children came down with Malaria....he didnt have enough money to take both to the Drs.. so he took the child who was worse to the Dr. While he was gone the other child died. The man who was building the houses was shocked. He said if he had known he would have lent him the money , it was probably only 10 - 20 dollars ....but he didnt even know about it and it was to late. Heartbreaking all around.



this morning i get a Boda boda driver who has driven me a few times back and forth to the center where i teach. He wants to know what i am going to leave him as a rememberance.... !!! i said "like what?" his answer was ....i dont know, your shoes, maybe your camera.... anything! lol... how do they find me???

it rained last night.... floods of ARC proportions i thought sure the hotel was going to be sailing down the nile at one point. Thankfully i was wrong.... but when i heard the gregorian-like chanting this morning coming from the Servitude Fathers... i wasnt so sure i didnt go to heaven.
Even so, it is a nice way to wake up.... picture an all male chorus chanting softly......"it is time to get your sweet butt out of bed...its 630 am" better than an alarm clock that screams at you , i say! i hurt everywhere from teh rain though. I guess it doesnt matter where you live ... when it rains the abused joints hurt - i dont think its got anything to do with rapids down the nile, 5000 miles of travel over huge bumpy roads or the ATVing, do you?? First thing i want to buy when i get home is an inversion chair so my spine will uncompress( is that even a word?). lol

i miss my 30 + games of scrabble on Facebook....while it will let me update status i cant load scrabble games!!! WITHDRRRAAAWWWLLLLLLL... all to be rectified soon. Be patient my pretties!

Going to get dinner now....its 816 pm.....i should have my dinner by 1030! no joke!

later, loves! B

SA FAR(I) AWAY - third installment

yesterday we went ATVing as i told you ... but we rode about 2 hours along the Bujagali Falls and surrounding "towns". Riding through rutted streets which were more like large pathways. Everywhere we passed children, they ran to see us. After the first ten minutes i wasn't sure i wanted to continue.... not so much because of the bumpy rides but more because i kept thinking about ..... well, just all of it. One thing running through my head was the fact that i was spending $70.. to ride two hours through peoples backyards and crop grounds. They dont make that much in a year some of them. Another part of me thought - "well, the ATV people, Peter and Sharae(sp)?, are employing many Ugandans as guides, repair people, servers and giving back to the schools in the area...so i WAS technically helping stimulate their economy." Yet, still another side of me thought -" i feel like a freak show". I didnt know which of us was more on display for the other. We ride by seeing their homes and hard way of life. Children follow us, yelling to us, like the munchkins wishing Drothy a safe Journey back to OZ. What do the Ugandans think of us riding all over - zipping by "gracing" them with a wave? I wished there was a hole in my pockets letting coins drop out of my pockets ... but that doesnt sustain them forever it just replenishes the fact that we are "rich" Americans who have money to give away. (They dont understand that in America... I am the poor white people! lol.... I live modestly....save money when i do work... and can get by on very little. Yet, i donate regularly, write to 40 servicemen and women weekly and do some form of volunteer thing that is more involved, not quite like this and not so far away, at least once a year. I am not wealthy monetarily... but rich in other ways.)

Lusoga has no word for LOVE. So our teacher tells us. If a man wants to see you he says so. If you like him you agree to "date" and see where it goes from there. if you like each other he marries you, supports you and has children with you! end of story! hummmmmm.

Last night Lindsay had another of her frights....lol.. i told her i was going to write about this episode! She saw "something" in her room... convinced it was a scorpion or some thing in her room. She has gone to have the front desk take care of it! So we wait.... then i go with her to her room to check and see if they have removed the horrific offender......IT was waiting ..lurking....under her bags.......a baby gecko or other type lizard about an inch and a half long. I scootched it along the floor with my finger telling it it needed to vacate her premises. I then carried it down the stairs to the ground floor and the gardens. I took a picture of it next to my glasses.... the poor thing isnt even the length of a lense.....now of course its mother COULD be a Kimodo Dragon for all i know... and will come to eat me tomorrow..... but i saved the baby anyway.

I always go on and on about Lindsay, who ends her stay here Monday. i will have to tell you more about the others - i wouldnt want them to feel neglected.

Polly and Jamie come as a couple and when they say opposites attract, it appears to happen more than you think. They have been together off and on a long time. Now currently on for the last year or two and live in NY. Jamie is 28 ish and used to do gymnastic type basketball shots for the Celtics, worked doing film work, is a photographer and all around techno whiz who never ceases to try to get me to understand computer crap - but when i dont, he does it for me without complaining. ok... maybe he complains a little.... but we have the same weird sense of humor and photography background... so I indulge him. He also thinks i can do ANYTHING else but computers. Flattery will get him alot, including today's haircut.... lol ... and he now teaches math to 8th graders in DABronx. Ack! His significant other is Polly or is he hers? She is .....26 ish and they both came very prepared for the trip. They read up about Uganda , learned a bit of language - usual stuff most people would do before a trip like this, except me! Polly also does draping and tailoring in my union. I didnt know her before this trip but she is very talented. Not that being a perfectionist is a bad thing mind you ..... its good... but i think it was a bit disappointing to her that the women and men didnt quite get how important straight seams are and the attention to details is what gets them the higher prices for their work. Polly is creative , like me.... and Jamie keeps trying to help organize her. My motto is "creative minds are rarely neat" and "if you come to see me, come anytime - if you come to see my house.... stay home." (This last statement will have to be amended a bit once the Gingerbread transformation happens to the outside - because i am sure it will draw alot of attention..but that will be another blog.)

Rebecca aka Becky, Tara's good friend, was the first of the group to leave last Friday. She teaches English as her regular job and wrote a really great poem about the handicapped children. i am going to include it - i hope Becky doesnt mind. She is a true southern peach type of woman. Tall, slender, beautiful inside as well as out with a smile that melted the hearts of many Ugandan, and not so Ugandan, men. While i didnt actually work with her all day, our paths did cross often at dinners or after work. I am so glad we had the chance to meet.


The beauty you cannot see
I see very clearly in you
While your eyes may not focus
The picture I view is more true

What matters in this world
Is not defined by one's sight
But whether or not one has vision
That centers on what is right

Your vision sees no color
Does not distinguish between age
Gives no regard to one's size
For my looks you can't gauge

It simply because I AM
That you smile at me
Standing there beside you
All I have to do is BE.

-Inspired by and written for the blind children of HODASSU
Rebecca Maier (Becky) 16 July 2010

Tara is our leader...lol.. and helped coordinate all the stuff to get us here. Also a union member that i didnt know before this trip. Bubbly and energetic about all the work here, she has been coming to Jinja for 4 or 5 years now. She may never get rid of me .... not that i am thinking about returning anytime soon.... but i can, MAYBE, help do things stateside.

SA FAR(I) AWAY - part deuce

you really shouldnt let someone loose a few thousand miles away from family and friends that KNOW what kind of weird things i can think and trouble i can get myself into. I need a keeper...lol....

I know i took a plane from the year 2010 to this place but i feel like i have found a rip in time/secret portal/wormhole like in the movies Somewhere in Time, Kate and Leopold and any Farscape episode...

OK.. since it has been awhile since i last posted i am going to give a lot of observations here rather than a daily break down...

I finally got to Jinja.. via more potholes and life threatening rides....

I am staying in the Paradise Hotel which lives along the side of the Nile river but then ALOT lives alongside the Nile river as it is VERY big! The Hotel is nice... by Ugandan standards. $22.00 a night gives me a double bed, tv ( with 3 channels, news & sports/ a movie channel-ish thing and VOODOO MAGIC.... i kid you not!) my own bathroom with a REAL toilet , tub & sink. I was hoping that i didnt have to lug all my luggage up 3 flights of stairs to a room... and you know how you ask for things and then get them... and THEN slap yourself in the head and say to yourself" i really need to be a bit more specific in what i ask for!". Well, i did get a room on the first floor HOWEVER, i also got the room that every hotel worker congregates under to meet at the crack of dawn and the wash down the sidewalks with huge brooms. It is also where the morning sunrise services were held for the Jesus People here one week.....soooo, i think they were hoping they could get me converted with some music early in the morning.... they were wrong!
The hotel must have been nice when it was built.... i am guessing the 1920- 30's? Tall ebony or mahogany doors i am sure are original, 12 foot ceilings curved plaster walls with the inverted tray ceilings and your usual decorator princess BUG NET. The bathroom is off to one side down a 2 inch step. Here in Ugandaland they have no idea that steps should be uniform in height or perhaps, and this is just a crazy thought, how about we make the floor level and forget that 2 inch drop altogether???? . The walls dont meet at right angles, bathroom door swings in and slams into the waist high tub with a clang! I have to pull my leg all the way up chest high to step over the side of the tub which only has a hose shower type thingy... and no drain stopper for the tub. My pulled groin muscle and knee are really never meant to heal:::sigh:::! The sink sits, if you want to call it that, crooked on a pedestal base that makes all my stuff slide off the back of it. I feel like the little crooked man who walked a crooked mile in my lil crooked bathroom. It took me a few nights, when nature calls in the middle of the night and in that sleepy haze to remember that damned 2 inch drop! In that same sleepy hazed stupor i am also creeped out by the bug net which sits directly over my head at night. Being as i don't need the bug net here in the hotel, except for Harry the daddy long legs catching flies in the bathroom corner and the freeze dried frog found in the fringe in my area rug, i dont see any bugs in my room and i leave it rolled up and tucked but in sleepy-hazeland it reminds me of a huge alien pod waiting for some creature to burst out of it - or a really huge penis! lol.. sorry if i offended anyone with that comment... but i just calls 'em as i see 'em! . Also i am creeped out by the huge mirrored closet next to the bed... at some times in my life i might enjoy that... here, alone, in Jinja, is not one of them! They stuff two pillows into once case on the bed and its hard as a rock.... the hotel emblem is smack dab in the middle of it and on my jaunts from the bathroom... i am always wondering f it is some creature that has slithered into my bed! They have placed the fan on the wall... but they didnt measure the length of the cord... so they lowered it about 2 inches... but that didnt work... so they bent the prongs, which are long round edged things to reach into the socket. SAFE STUFF here!
People tell you yes to everything. They dont want to disappoint you ... but you may never get what you ask for.
Dinners, lunch - hell, EVERYTHING takes HOURS to order and prepare. No fast foody MacDonalds here.... nuh uh! It took us 2 1/2 hours last night to get food.. then when we wanted dessert they told us the kitchen was closed. This was on a slow night....
The vulture here or "trash birds" as they are called are huge. The size of dumpsters! they come up to my shoulder and are the ugliest thing i have seen in awhile. They remind me of a bad cartoon where they would sneak up on an unsuspecting person...but in reality they are more afraid of humans!
We ride boda- bodas everywhere... they cost about .45 to get to town.. but they try to charge us more because they think we are rich americans because we can afford to come here. It isn't really about the extra 10 or 15 cents but the principal.....if my skin was brown they wouldnt charge that. Although right about now.. my skin is pretty damned close. they also carry 3 or 4 passengers on them.babies, handicapped, huge loads of stuff.... scary!

I have taken language lessons from a man who sounds like Darth VAder. ... some Lusoga.... Wa su ze o ty ah pronounced just like i wrote it .. means good morning. They have a whole ritual of addressing each other... which includes a little sing songy type of cadence.... our teacher is a madman!! lol.. he thinks he can cram a million things in our heads at once.... ACK!!

Teaching was great and difficult. Mothers have to bring babies..we had 3 in the class... babies that is. And they just didnt like me - ME of all people!!! By the end of the 2 weeks i had Hennifer smiling at me and not screaming when i held her... Jehwema.. was having none of me until the very last second i got her to smile for me!!lol... Just when i was feeling like the students werent getting anything i was doing i was surprised . I had been doing some embroidery - which was going to be a part of what i wanted to teach but time just didnt allow it. Our goal was to give them a completed project that they could sell... to buy more supplies...and of course give them the skills to make better things. So, as they worked on treadle machines , i would supervise a little and embroider.... After our last class on friday they asked "a special request" for me to show them some of the stitches so they could decorate like i did. Here i thought they werent paying attention to what i was doing but only what they were doing!

AACCCKKKKK the VOICES outside my window!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it's only 630 am!!!!

Store fronts and homes are PLOTS. I feel like i am in a cemetery...plot 33 lusoga Road....

breakfast every day included in the hotel: pineapple, watermelon, bananas, coco puffs, cornflakes... sausagey type things...dense bread, mango and passion fruit drinks - eggs if you want them , cooked in LOTS of oil! ::::shuddering:::::

Junk in the trunk is a turn on here... women purposely pad their hips! Waists are called ...hold on to your hats folks.... "mooncandy! " got to love it!

all thsose old clothes you donate to the bins.. comes here to be distributed and be sold by the people of Uganda... those dead parachute pants , guess jeans...WWF, Celtics, Pearl Jam t- shirts... they are all here.

African children eat g- nut sauce.... a kind of peanutty thing.. very strong. Sugar cane,rice beans, matoke - a banana thing, and poshu....uuugggghhhh! That is just me i guess...

Every other day i tuck the pod - like bug net up over the curtain rod to see if housekeeping is going to retrieve it. It at least stops creeping me out that way! I think they have gotten the message - it appears to be staying there - at least the last few nights!

Went white water rafting, got dunked in the Nile, consequently got mashed by an oar in the face.. sick from swallowing wayyyy to much water.. the nose has healed.. only slight blue marks under the eyes ... better from the water swallowing....

Went ATV - ing today.....i think i have realigned all the vertebra in my back...lol no significant damage done

Teach a new class monday and tuesday and head home Wed.... I miss ... a few things back home... and cant wait to get there! see you soon!!