Thursday, 4 July 2013

Happy Fourth of July!!

This was one of the weirder July 4th's I've had.

As Marjani says, so glad we gained independence and didn't end up like the British people staying with us (no offense to my British friends, these guys are just really making a bad name for you all)

This morning Avaran dropped by.  Apparently his grandmother has been in the hospital (which is right by us) with a kidney problem.  If I understood correctly, she was very swollen all over.  After a short chat he took me to see her.  It wasn't visiting hours, but the guards at one of the gates knows him since he has come and go so much recently, so we were allowed in (as were many other people... visiting hours seems to be more of a suggestion than a rule).

The hospital itself was set up interestingly.  It's not like ours, more like each ward is a separate building, and each building about one room, varying in size.  We went in the room where his grandmother was.  The first thing I noticed was it was just a huge room full of beds, no privacy at all.  We went over to her bed, where she was surrounded by women in her family, who were talking to her and massaging her arms and hands, as she was clearly in pain.  It was hard seeing the pained look on her family's faces, as well as the occasional tear run down her cheeks.  I don't think I have seen a Ugandan woman cry before, as they mostly seem so tough and strong.  I felt a bit out of place, having never met her before and coming for a visit, especially since I do not speak the language, so I tried to hang back a bit and just observed, but I'm glad I went to support their family.  We didn't stay too long, which I am glad for, since I felt like a bit of an intruder.

Later on, on our way to Namatala, it looked like it would rain, yet again.  Stephanie and I were sharing a boda, and just as we turned the corner onto the road into Namatala, we saw everyone start running and we could see the rain headed straight toward us (from Namatala).  The driver immediately turned into the first driveway and rushed us (and his boda) under shelter.  It ended up being a guest house, and everyone else ran there for shelter as well, and the owner offered us seats on the covered porch.  As we sat there, we saw the rest of our group on bodas drive past, and wondered if they were going to try to reach Child of Hope, realizing they'd be drenched (aside from the fact that the rain sort of stings when you drive that quickly).  The rain came down HARD, with huge puddles (ponds?) and streams forming everywhere.  At one point there was even hail, the same as I saw in Sydney, Australia, one day, about the size of marbles (talk about unexpected).  Every so often more people would join us under the shelter.  There also seemed to be some sort of boy scout camping trip across the way, which was unfortunate as most of their tents got blown over.

When the rain finally calmed, we continued on, passing Meredith, Avery, Chanel, and Jessica who it turns out had stopped a bit further down.  We drove through numerous puddles and the sides of the roads were huge streams, though it looked like they had some sort of drainage system which was cool.  Even the goats and chickens had taken cover.  We also drove by Lofisa, who had decided not to walk yet, and said she'd meet us soon.  The driver was kind enough to drive us all the way to the school, instead of where we usually walk the last bit.

When we walked in, Jack, Kelsey, and Pelin were there, all drenched, since their drivers had powered through the rain (quite quickly apparently).  Kelsey and Pelin's driver even argued the price with them while they were standing getting drenched.  I felt awful for them, and when Pelin called Marjani to see if she'd bring them dry clothes, Marjani walked in a minute later, having already been close.  Lofisa also slipped on her way, getting all muddy, and everyone (except Mary) was late.

What a day.

The good part about the rain, though, was how much it cooled everything down.  I walked home with Meredith and Chanel, enjoying the weather.

Help International, another group out here (which is what Rebecca and Alexis came with when they decided to then start 1000 Shillings), was throwing a 4th of July party.  They were supposed to have kickball and volleyball, though we planned to miss it, wanting a bit of a break before heading over.  We were in charge of bringing hamburger buns and soda, and ended up struggling pretty hard with both, trying 3 grocery stores before we were satisfied, and not getting quite what we'd wanted, but realizing we'd have to make do.  We then got on bodas, with only Chanel knowing where to go, and she and I promptly lost everyone else, hoping we'd find them so they wouldn't get lost.  Thankfully that was a quick fix, though it did start raining on us again (not as hard but it still wasn't ideal).  Oh, I forgot to mention, we weren't sure if they'd have veggie food, so Chanel was carrying around a pot with guacamole, which turned a lot of heads in case we weren't strange enough, especially walking in the rain.

When we got there, the sports had been cancelled and everyone was sitting inside playing cards.  We played too (though within our own group) and found catchphrase which was fun.  The food was also really good.  Though I didn't have a burger it was nice having chips and bean dip (though I decided to use chapati I'd bought instead of chips) and guacamole and potato salad.  There were also fried bananas which were heavenly.  It was pretty fun and nice to have different food, but I don't know that it was so special.

Then when we went to leave we realized bodas don't really pass by there, and so we started walking in the dark.  Unlike home, where there are street lights, this was ACTUALLY dark.  Beautiful stars, but hard to see the road and a big fear of getting run over by cars who might not notice us.  We ended up 4 of us walking, and every so often a creepy car stopped and asked if we needed a ride, which didn't help.  Finally, we were walking and suddenly a guy came out from in front of us and started us, just because we hadn't seen them.  About a second later another car stopped, and we realized Jack and Marjani were in that one.  We ended up squeezing 7 of us into the back seat, with Marjani and Jessica sticking their heads out either window.  It was like a 4th of July parade!

Ha, so that was the day.  I'm excited for tomorrow, when Jessica and I will be making dinner and dancing with Mary and her family!

Happy July 4th to everyone back home!

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