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