A bunch of people brought Bananagrams so now we've started playing some nights. Yay!!
Saturday morning Palin, Kelsey, Chanel and I got up early and went to Child of Hope to meet Esther and Martha.
While we waited there were some kids playing in the school yard, and they taught me their game of marbles. There are a bunch of grooves in the dirt, and it's downhill a bit, so they roll marbles down, and I think the goal is to get yours the furthest, but if you hit another one you take both and get another turn. It was fun playing with them instead of just watching as I usually do. I was just sad I couldn't have my camera since it was Saturday... (This actually was an issue I had all day. There was so much I wanted to photograph, and with the amount of transportation I used and how much other people ended up having to pay for me, I felt like I should've just skipped this Shabbat and just paid for myself and taken pictures... It was a weird feeling and while I had an amazing day, I struggled some all day with such a strange Shabbat).
When Martha and Esther showed up we headed to Martha's house momentarily. On the way we saw this kid rolling a toy car behind him (you know the ones that have a string attached and roll after you?) the cool part though, was the body of the car was made out of a big empty juice box with wheels put in.
Anyway we got to see Martha's house, which apparently 9 people sleep in. We met her oldest daughter, Sarah, and some of her sons. Sarah told us that she has school even on the weekends, though Sunday it starts later so that they can go to church first.
Have I mentioned religion is really big here? Mostly Christianity and Islam, though there are some Indians around which brought Hinduism and there is a Jewish community, though people don't seem to know about Judaism at all outside of that community.
Funny moment: we were sitting in Martha's house and Esther was very thirsty and told us she's like a mzungu in an African body because she drinks so much water like we do.
So then we began our journey. We didn't quite realize what a journey this would be. It was funny because since Martha and Esther were traveling with mzungus (white people... aka us) everyone tried overcharging them, saying we could afford it, but they kept arguing saying they knew the real prices and it wasn't fair. The journey there ended up having 3 legs: first a boda into town, very close to where we live, then a car driving us closer to the village. (A bit creepy, while we were waiting for the bodas this guy came up and was super touchy with all of us and I think was trying to kiss me... it was awkward trying to spin away from that one. I was very glad when we left.)
I finally understand what they say when they say they have bad roads. There are many types of roads here, some newer ones that are totally fine (very rare to find). Some rocks laid down for them to make roads (super bumpy to ride on). Some roads with potholes that you can drive around and avoid, though you end up playing chicken with cars driving towards you as you both try to get the best part of the road, and half the time you drive on the side of the road to get around potholes. We had quite a scare once as a truck was coming straight toward us and didn't appear to want to move to his side of the road. On those types anything goes and you can zigzag back and forth across the road avoiding potholes. Then, there are the real bad roads, where it is not possible to avoid potholes as the whole road is potholes. THAT is a bad road. Needless to say with 6 people crammed into 4 seats in addition to the crazy road and breaking down car (I looked at the dashboard and discovered that none of it works. I'm not sure how he knows when he's running low on gas), it was a crazy ride.
From there we got onto another boda that took us into the village and dropped us at Esther's husband, Sam's house. The two are separated, but Esther says they try to stay good for their kids. She has a daughter and son who live there with their dad.
They welcomed us and brought us to sit under a mango tree and picked us mangoes to eat. Story of the day, sitting under trees and eating fresh food. They showed us their farms and Esther said how much she loves not having to pay for food out there and being able to just pick things and eat them. They also have pigs which we haven't yet seen out here, in addition to all the other animals which are the norm. It was fun learning about the types of food they grow and how long things take to grow.
We went on to her dad's house and met her sister-in-law and her kids and lots of neighbors. They kept saying they wanted to set us up with Ugandan men (and some of the older boys said we could marry them ha) It was sweet though when they told us that we fit in well in the village. They had us try casava, a root vegetable. I didn't like it uncooked, but when they roasted it it tasted pretty similar to potato. Esther also made us matooke and casava with a g-nut sauce over them. I've never liked matooke much here but this I actually liked. The only problem was we were all pretty full already, but it was rude to refuse. Esther also taught us that once you put out food for visitors the food is there's, and if you don't finish it they pack it for the visitors to take home.
Chanel had her camera with her and taught one of the boys to use it. It was interesting how they acted differently toward us than the kids in Namatala. In Namatala they all just run towards the camera, here they were taking turns and modeling and no one was grabbing at the camera, so it was easier to let a kid use it.
It was also interesting that to some people we were the first muzungus they've ever seen. Even while we ate they just sat and watched us, barely saying a word.
We thankfully ran into Esther's dad on our way back to her husband's house. It was cool being able to meet him. He shook all our hands and held them up, which apparently is like saying "God bless you".
On our way out a woman gave us a chicken as a gift for coming. Apparently they were all saying that they were blessed since muzungus visited them. And they all asked us to come back. Hopefully next month we will be able to go again, as that's when Esther is going again. I think it is good that we helped pay for their transportation, as it sounds like she cannot always afford to get out there. Esther also gave Sam some money for the kids, because they said it is unfair for the husband to have to pay for them completely. It was interesting to hear.
I'm not really sure how else to describe it except that it was an amazing day. The village is so peaceful and I just felt at home. I loved the relaxed attitude and just sitting and talking and cooking. Obviously they generally do more work, but I felt so at peace and so happy out there. Hearing just the sounds of people and animals and seeing so much green. I loved it.
The way back was entertaining. We took a mattatoo (taxi) that was incredibly crowded (space for 12 and I think we had 21 in it). Esther was also holding the chicken and every so often it would squawk just behind me and I jumped every time. Strange ride.
When we got back Chanel took the chicken, which we named Franklin, and showed off our gift at the Casa.
On to Sunday:
We woke up bright and early and took bodas to the bottom of the trail to hike up Mount Elgon, the mountain that's close to where we live. I woke up a bit light headed but decided to hike it anyway... I'm not trying to make excuses but I'll say that probably wasn't my best plan.
We started the hike on this pretty big road surrounded by farms, I was already panting at this point, clearly a bad sign. (I always promise I'll be honest so I won't stop now and pretend like I'm in good shape. Apparently stopping working out was a bad plan, as I did not struggle this much when hiking in the outback in Australia...) Anyway, we kept going up then flat then up then flat... and finally we got to the ACTUAL trail head. We'd been told it's a 5 hour hike, but all of us had thought we'd already started the hike. Little did we know...
We left the road and continued on a rocky hike upwards. There were some small bits that were flat, but it was more rare. Generally we just looked for parts that were slightly wider to take breaks so that we weren't in the way of the locals who wanted to pass.
Thankfully it was a cloudy and slightly drizzly day, as it meant that it stayed cool. I think if the sun was out I would've quit and tried another time. The downside, however, was that since parts of the hike are rocky, the rocks were all slippery.
The hike wound around up the mountain, but even with that it was quite steep. Marjani and I took a lot of breaks, and finally the rest of the group decided to go ahead, though Jack stayed back with us and at some point Avery did as well. We became the B Squad (self named, so no, it's not offensive, we were all proud except maybe Jack) stopping for plenty of food, water, and breathing breaks.
It was amazing how many houses and farms were set up along the mountain (it was also funny walking by people who were laughing at us since for them our "hike" is just how they go home). We got lost a few times too, as there were different paths leading to fields instead of up the mountain. The views on the way up made it totally worth it. Every so often you'd look back and just see town and it was amazingly beautiful.
I also loved seeing the homemade barns for cows made of sticks.
The flowers and bugs were pretty awesome too. There were a bunch of flowers I'd never seen, and huge millipedes, and so many varieties of butterflies (wikipedia tells me there are over 1,000). There were also a couple smaller waterfalls on our way to the top (our goal was to get to the top of the huge one that you can see from where we live).
We rounded a bend and saw another incline but couldn't see anything past there, and we all said this better actually be the top, and then Rebecca popped her head out and we knew we'd made it. Sadly none of us had the energy to run up the end, though it would've been fun. We practically collapsed at the top, which turned out to be more farmland. There were a bunch of kids hanging out and onions growing and cows and dogs and goats. We also saw a paraglider fly by, and all the kids went running after it.
We finally continued on and got to the waterfall. A local guy told me there were monkeys below us but I couldn't see them and I kept getting yelled at for being too close to the edge. I personally did not feel nervous but everyone else is a bit more scared around heights... I listened though and stayed away. Anyway it was cool being up there. I felt pretty accomplished and would like to do it again sometime to prove I can do it better.
After a bit we checked out the pools at the top by the smaller waterfall that lead to the big one. I thought it was too cold but some people went in. I chilled on a rock with Jessica and Avery and a bunch of local kids came up and were hanging out with us. It was fun except we realized a bunch of them had knives they were playing with. They must've been pretty blunt since they were holding the blades, but it was still a bit uncomfortable so we made moves to leave.
Somehow I ended up leading down the mountain. Talk about shaky legs. I think parts of the mountain my legs just kinda went without me asking them to... and there were plenty of parts where I needed to use my hands or I would've wiped out. At one point I was choosing between walking in the ditch to the left or on the ledge to the right and as I was deciding my legs just gave out and I fell on my butt. Didn't hurt but I guess my body just chose to take both ways at once. I used my ski skills (which don't exist as skiing scares me) to zigzag down to make it less scary when the path was wide enough, but that didn't happen often. The sun also came out finally, which was annoying because it made it hot very quickly, but was nice since the way down was less slippery.
When we finally hit flatter ground we sped up to make up for how slowly we'd climbed down. Once we got back to the road I stopped paying attention, glad to be close to getting on a boda and going home to shower. Jack slipped which was sort of funny since we were past the hard part. About two minutes later I wiped out as well, realizing how easy it was to lose your footing when you stopped paying attention. I got up to keep going since it didn't hurt that badly then realized there was blood on my pants and decided to check it out. That's where I went wrong. (Sorry if this is a bit more detail than people want... if you're squeamish maybe skip the next paragraph)
I lifted up my pant leg and saw blood dripping down. It was sort of a lot and I immediately started blacking out and my hearing started to go. My sister the med student told me it's called a "vagovasal response".
This has only happened to me with the sight of blood one other time, when I cut my thumb pretty badly. Anyway, I couldn't see it, but Jessica told me it was a pretty bad gash and Avery and Stephanie bolted, both being squeamish (no, I don't blame them at all. I think I'd rather they leave than pass out with me). Anyway, Jack and Marjani came back and we covered it with a tissue and wrapped a hair tie around my leg to slow the bleeding. We were also just about out of water so I used the last of my water to pour on it. When I tried standing up again, though, I lost my vision again and couldn't stand, so I gave up and sat back down. Rebecca found a boda and sent it back to us, and Jessica and I got on, me still unable to see and holding onto Jessica and leaning against her. As the ride went I tried to slow my breathing and finally got some balance back. I was pretty embarrassed, having made it all the way up and down the mountain and then passing out at the bottom... not my proudest moment.
Oh and I managed to get even more burnt than the day before... Saturday I totally just didn't think to wear sunscreen, horrible idea, then Sunday I tried but it didn't work so well...
Back at the Casa Becca was out front. It was his birthday but I totally forgot and he came in to help me clean out my knee. I sat on a chair in the bathroom and he told me to take off my socks so he could pour water on my leg. When he went to wipe it off I told him I'd do it since I was scared he would hurt me, but turns out he was more gentle than I probably would've been. Who knew Becca was a doctor in addition to repairman, electrician, photographer and everything else he does around here. It's a weird wound, since part of it is skinned but another part is like a weird flap of skin... I must have fallen on a rock or something. It still is dripping every so often and a bit gross. I have a feeling that'll be a scar (as my sister says, I have an intense scar from Uganda now, although since everyone knows how I got it maybe it's a bit less cool than it could've been... I'll make up a cool story for anyone who hasn't read this).
Today was pretty normal, it was interesting having the two other photographers as well. I am no longer the only one. I finally know which of the ladies I'm focusing on so that'll be helpful.
Only weird thing is on our way home it started getting really dark and cloudy (turned out to be an advantage when the shoe sale guy tried to stop us and I could use the excuse that we wanted to get home before the rain). It was funny how once the drizzles started people started running, but they stopped momentarily and then kids laughed as us muzungus for running. Really kids? With all that wind and dust and drizzle you were running two second ago too...
Once we got home there was a storm, which is fine and kinda nice with the cool air, except that these huge flying bugs started coming into our rooms (we found out later these are Ugandan termites) and they get all over you, so we started attacking. At first it was mostly Chanel killing them all as we showed her where they were. She started a pile of them, though we later realized that the pile attracted ants so we got rid of them. Once Chanel got back to her movie and more kept coming, Jessica and I took over killing a few. We now can all proudly say we've killed termites (no, I don't make it a habbit of killing bugs. In fact, I've realized our rug has tons of bugs, but figured here it just doesn't matter and there's no other way so I may as well pretend they're not here, but these things weren't working that way).
That's about it. Oh, just fyi our dinner conversation generally is about the foods we all wish we had (or just food in general that we like and then after discussing it we realize we wish we had it) and tv shows. It's kind of funny how those are the theme.
Ok sorry again that this was so long!
We started the hike on this pretty big road surrounded by farms, I was already panting at this point, clearly a bad sign. (I always promise I'll be honest so I won't stop now and pretend like I'm in good shape. Apparently stopping working out was a bad plan, as I did not struggle this much when hiking in the outback in Australia...) Anyway, we kept going up then flat then up then flat... and finally we got to the ACTUAL trail head. We'd been told it's a 5 hour hike, but all of us had thought we'd already started the hike. Little did we know...
View of the waterfall from the bottom
We left the road and continued on a rocky hike upwards. There were some small bits that were flat, but it was more rare. Generally we just looked for parts that were slightly wider to take breaks so that we weren't in the way of the locals who wanted to pass.
Thankfully it was a cloudy and slightly drizzly day, as it meant that it stayed cool. I think if the sun was out I would've quit and tried another time. The downside, however, was that since parts of the hike are rocky, the rocks were all slippery.
The hike wound around up the mountain, but even with that it was quite steep. Marjani and I took a lot of breaks, and finally the rest of the group decided to go ahead, though Jack stayed back with us and at some point Avery did as well. We became the B Squad (self named, so no, it's not offensive, we were all proud except maybe Jack) stopping for plenty of food, water, and breathing breaks.
It was amazing how many houses and farms were set up along the mountain (it was also funny walking by people who were laughing at us since for them our "hike" is just how they go home). We got lost a few times too, as there were different paths leading to fields instead of up the mountain. The views on the way up made it totally worth it. Every so often you'd look back and just see town and it was amazingly beautiful.
I also loved seeing the homemade barns for cows made of sticks.
The flowers and bugs were pretty awesome too. There were a bunch of flowers I'd never seen, and huge millipedes, and so many varieties of butterflies (wikipedia tells me there are over 1,000). There were also a couple smaller waterfalls on our way to the top (our goal was to get to the top of the huge one that you can see from where we live).
We rounded a bend and saw another incline but couldn't see anything past there, and we all said this better actually be the top, and then Rebecca popped her head out and we knew we'd made it. Sadly none of us had the energy to run up the end, though it would've been fun. We practically collapsed at the top, which turned out to be more farmland. There were a bunch of kids hanging out and onions growing and cows and dogs and goats. We also saw a paraglider fly by, and all the kids went running after it.
We finally continued on and got to the waterfall. A local guy told me there were monkeys below us but I couldn't see them and I kept getting yelled at for being too close to the edge. I personally did not feel nervous but everyone else is a bit more scared around heights... I listened though and stayed away. Anyway it was cool being up there. I felt pretty accomplished and would like to do it again sometime to prove I can do it better.
Me at the top
After a bit we checked out the pools at the top by the smaller waterfall that lead to the big one. I thought it was too cold but some people went in. I chilled on a rock with Jessica and Avery and a bunch of local kids came up and were hanging out with us. It was fun except we realized a bunch of them had knives they were playing with. They must've been pretty blunt since they were holding the blades, but it was still a bit uncomfortable so we made moves to leave.
Somehow I ended up leading down the mountain. Talk about shaky legs. I think parts of the mountain my legs just kinda went without me asking them to... and there were plenty of parts where I needed to use my hands or I would've wiped out. At one point I was choosing between walking in the ditch to the left or on the ledge to the right and as I was deciding my legs just gave out and I fell on my butt. Didn't hurt but I guess my body just chose to take both ways at once. I used my ski skills (which don't exist as skiing scares me) to zigzag down to make it less scary when the path was wide enough, but that didn't happen often. The sun also came out finally, which was annoying because it made it hot very quickly, but was nice since the way down was less slippery.
Jessica, Stephanie, Avery, Pelin, and Meredith climbing down
When we finally hit flatter ground we sped up to make up for how slowly we'd climbed down. Once we got back to the road I stopped paying attention, glad to be close to getting on a boda and going home to shower. Jack slipped which was sort of funny since we were past the hard part. About two minutes later I wiped out as well, realizing how easy it was to lose your footing when you stopped paying attention. I got up to keep going since it didn't hurt that badly then realized there was blood on my pants and decided to check it out. That's where I went wrong. (Sorry if this is a bit more detail than people want... if you're squeamish maybe skip the next paragraph)
I lifted up my pant leg and saw blood dripping down. It was sort of a lot and I immediately started blacking out and my hearing started to go. My sister the med student told me it's called a "vagovasal response".
This has only happened to me with the sight of blood one other time, when I cut my thumb pretty badly. Anyway, I couldn't see it, but Jessica told me it was a pretty bad gash and Avery and Stephanie bolted, both being squeamish (no, I don't blame them at all. I think I'd rather they leave than pass out with me). Anyway, Jack and Marjani came back and we covered it with a tissue and wrapped a hair tie around my leg to slow the bleeding. We were also just about out of water so I used the last of my water to pour on it. When I tried standing up again, though, I lost my vision again and couldn't stand, so I gave up and sat back down. Rebecca found a boda and sent it back to us, and Jessica and I got on, me still unable to see and holding onto Jessica and leaning against her. As the ride went I tried to slow my breathing and finally got some balance back. I was pretty embarrassed, having made it all the way up and down the mountain and then passing out at the bottom... not my proudest moment.
Oh and I managed to get even more burnt than the day before... Saturday I totally just didn't think to wear sunscreen, horrible idea, then Sunday I tried but it didn't work so well...
Back at the Casa Becca was out front. It was his birthday but I totally forgot and he came in to help me clean out my knee. I sat on a chair in the bathroom and he told me to take off my socks so he could pour water on my leg. When he went to wipe it off I told him I'd do it since I was scared he would hurt me, but turns out he was more gentle than I probably would've been. Who knew Becca was a doctor in addition to repairman, electrician, photographer and everything else he does around here. It's a weird wound, since part of it is skinned but another part is like a weird flap of skin... I must have fallen on a rock or something. It still is dripping every so often and a bit gross. I have a feeling that'll be a scar (as my sister says, I have an intense scar from Uganda now, although since everyone knows how I got it maybe it's a bit less cool than it could've been... I'll make up a cool story for anyone who hasn't read this).
Today was pretty normal, it was interesting having the two other photographers as well. I am no longer the only one. I finally know which of the ladies I'm focusing on so that'll be helpful.
Only weird thing is on our way home it started getting really dark and cloudy (turned out to be an advantage when the shoe sale guy tried to stop us and I could use the excuse that we wanted to get home before the rain). It was funny how once the drizzles started people started running, but they stopped momentarily and then kids laughed as us muzungus for running. Really kids? With all that wind and dust and drizzle you were running two second ago too...
Once we got home there was a storm, which is fine and kinda nice with the cool air, except that these huge flying bugs started coming into our rooms (we found out later these are Ugandan termites) and they get all over you, so we started attacking. At first it was mostly Chanel killing them all as we showed her where they were. She started a pile of them, though we later realized that the pile attracted ants so we got rid of them. Once Chanel got back to her movie and more kept coming, Jessica and I took over killing a few. We now can all proudly say we've killed termites (no, I don't make it a habbit of killing bugs. In fact, I've realized our rug has tons of bugs, but figured here it just doesn't matter and there's no other way so I may as well pretend they're not here, but these things weren't working that way).
Jessica and Chanel dealing with the bugs
That's about it. Oh, just fyi our dinner conversation generally is about the foods we all wish we had (or just food in general that we like and then after discussing it we realize we wish we had it) and tv shows. It's kind of funny how those are the theme.
Ok sorry again that this was so long!
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