My Bad

I've really been terrible at this whole blogging thing. Sorry about that.

The rest of Uganda was incredible. It went by way too fast. We wrapped up all of our projects: the library has a board of directors that will continue working with us to get funding, Proud to be a Girl has a team of women who will continue the project once school starts again and we had a training course for the Happy Child volunteers so they can continue to do their good work. We had a party with all of our partners at the end of the summer and it was really nice to have everyone together and to get to thank them for all of their work. The people there really helped us with our projects and we made some amazing friends.

James--our library partner

Pastor Francis and Madam Ssanyu. These are two of the most amazing people on earth.

Justine, our CRAZY next door neighbor. 

Christine. She owns pigs and so she is awesome.

We also went to Martin and Camera's wedding party. It was at a resort right on the edge of the Nile and it was beautiful! Camera looked so pretty and we were so happy for them that they finally get to be together. Martin was starting to go crazy with Camera being in America for so long. Plus, it was just about the best reception I've ever been to. We wore our African clothes, ate crazy good food, played ping pong and soccer and then waded in the Nile. So, yep. I'm gonna need to get married in Africa.

And then we had to say goodbye and that was the worst day of my life. My two best friends, Eve and Rosette, came over in the morning and spent the day with us. Leaving them really was the pits. We cried and hugged and cried some more. But I guess that's a good sign. I'm so grateful I got to know them. They have blessed my life so much.

I cannot wait to go back. Thank you to everyone who supported me and helped me be able to go. It really was a life changing experience and I am so grateful I had it. 

Just a lot of sweetness and a little bit of irony for your Sunday afternoon.

More Pictures from Our Rappelling Adventure

Sunrise hike. 

Kev. He's sideways cause I'm dumb.

One of the scariest moments of my life.

Kellie, looking good.

Elise! 

Mama Hari

Good, good day.

Do You Know What I Did Last Weekend?

I rappelled 330 ft. down the side of this waterfall. 

Yep.

A Giant Run-Down on Projects

Can I first just tell you that there is a chicken pecking at my feet right now? Cause there is.

Anyway, projects! Man, there has been a lot happening this summer. The main project I've been working on is the library project. The team had started it before I got here but I jumped right on when I heard about it. Our goal is to establish a community library in Lugazi because the closest ones are about an hour away. The demand for information resources is so high here and almost none of the schools in the area have their own libraries. A lot of the students don't even have the textbooks they need and they have to share with their teachers to be able to do their homework. We've completed community and schools assessments to see what the people here wanted to see in a library. We also created a business plan and budget that allows the library to be self-sustainable. Of course, we've run into a lot of problems along the way. The hardest thing is that we are really trying to get the community involved. We want the project to grow organically instead of us coming in and pumping money into the project. Plus, we don't even have any money haha. So, we've been trying to get the local government and some of the bigger companies involved, but we've had little success so far, even though so many people have expressed their desire to have a library. At the moment, we're working on getting books here for next year. We're also setting up a Board of Directors who can help next year's HELP team to really get things going. It has been a challenging project and definitely not immediately gratifying, but we'll keep working hard on it and it will be great to see our efforts bring such an important asset to the community.


The two other projects that I've been working on are Proud to be a Girl and Happy Child International. Proud To Be A Girl is probably one of the best and worst projects there is. We have been going around to the local secondary schools and talking the the girls about goal setting, self-confidence, feminine hygiene, and relationships and just about everything else girls want to talk about. We have also been partnering with a local organization who helps with talking to the boys about the things they're facing. In the culture here, men truly believe they are better than women. It sucks. We've been trying really hard to get the boys to respect girls and to also convince the girls that they deserve respect. Also, the women don't talk to each other or their daughters about anything that has to do with what happens to girls when they are maturing and so there are a ton of myths flying around that get the girls scared. After we do our presentation we let all of the girls either raise their hands and ask questions or come up to us in private and ask questions. Some of the questions are just crazy because they seem like common sense for the rest of us. It's hard to think that so many of these girls live in fear of things they don't have to and it's horrible that they have no one to turn to. We're hoping to talk to some of the girls in our partner organization to continue the project after we leave. It has been a really cool project so far and I really hope it continues. 


Happy Child is a program set up for kids in the area who are orphans or have problems at home. They come to one of the local churches every Sunday and we have a lesson for them. Then we get into groups and play games. Our local partners keep track of all the children and know where they live and how they live so that if they need, they can help in any way possible. The local partners have a lot of volunteers who also come to the  Sunday activities so that they can carry on the project while we're gone. We're also having a two day training session in two weeks for the volunteers who will be staying all year. It has been really fun because you get to hang out with the kids and learn all of their Ugandan games and it's also a project that can be around for a long time. 


The team has had a ton of projects this summer including a business class that is finishing up with a grand graduation this Monday, an eye and dental camp, Musana Jewelry classes for some of the women in the community, a TOMS shoes project, building a school room for the Ssanyu school, constructing a piggery and all sorts of outreaches to villages and islands. I think there were probably some others that I can't remember right now because it feels like we've just done so much this summer. I've been so lucky to get to be here for all of it. I've learned so much about development and how to make long-lasting projects. 


So that's that. It's hard to wrap everything up and to realize I have to come home soon. I've loved everything about being here. It has been an experience I'll never forget.

I Have a Chaco in My Hand! I Have a Headlamp!

 I promise I'll try to use my words later and actually write a post about what's been going. For now, here are some pictures of the safari I went on a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, we didn't have power at our house before we left and so my camera didn't get charged so I don't have nearly as many as I wanted. Either way, it was so fun to spend the weekend with the girls I've been living with. We laughed so much and got to experience some amazing things. 

We spent the first night at a hostel in Kampala. It was kind of stressful and we were the biggest group of  American idiots you've ever seen but it was still a good time. 

The first day we went rhino trekking. No one informed us that we would need closed toed shoes and long pants... we all went in our shorts and chacos. good times. We were also instructed to climb the nearest tree should a rhino decide to attack. Those tree are tiny little things. So all around, we were feeling pretty safe. 

We drove four hours out to the animal reserve and it was almost like driving through the Lion King movie. It was so  insanely pretty. This picture doesn't get even close to doing it justice. 

The second morning we went on a game drive and we saw tons of giraffes!  At one point there were probably thirty of them surrounding our van.

These are the hippos. They were really not that exciting but for some reason we couldn't stop looking at them.  You can't even really tell what they are in the pictures because they are all just clumped together. They don't even hardly move but they're just awesome for some reason! And you know I was singing "I like em big. I like em chunkay!" the entire time. 

So I was sitting on top of the van as we were driving and I spotted this little guy. I don't know how  I saw him. When I told the driver to stop, Dumbo got all angry and started trying to attack me and I'm telling you what, if he decided to kill, I was going to be the first one gone. Luckily he just kinda kicked and flailed himself in my direction and then moved on. It was the most terrifying and thrilling experience the whole time. It was awesome. 

This is everyone else being sheltered from the raging elephants while I sat out in the open to be demolished. So good, though.

Little tiny village in the middle of nowhere. Literally. There is absolutely nothing for miles.  I'm amazed by these people.

After the game drive we took a ferry ride up the Nile to Murchison Falls. It was so beautiful. There were elephants and crocodiles and birds everywhere along the way.

Nile Crocodile.

Murchison Falls

One of the grass huts that we stayed in. It was so sweet.

On the last day we went chimp trekking. You really do need close toed shoes for this one but all of the Ugandans prayed for us and then we were ok. You pretty much just go walking through the jungle looking for chimps. At first they were just up in the trees and we could hardly see them but then they started coming down around us! There were probably six of them just a few feet away from us! I was just in shock the whole time because they were so close. 

I know this one is far away and you can barely see him.He was the first one we saw and I got so excited and took one picture of him and then my camera died. I promise we saw way more and they were way closer. We even saw a baby one swinging through the trees. It was such an awesome thing to see in real life.

 I also saw, but don't have good pictures of, lions, kob, warthogs, baboons, weird little antelope guys that I don't remember their name and I think that's all. We were super lucky because we got to see some of everything. The lions were a huge surprise and it was so cool. They were just sitting in their dens but supposedly they had been "matin out in the open" and that lioness "had four legs. but the lion only has three legs". That's what the nice lady from Alabama told us, anyway.

So, the safari was a huge success! We seriously laughed so much and I got so much closer to the girls. It was really fun to get away from Lugazi and get to see other parts of Uganda. I thought the safari would be kinda lame. Sort of like just looking at animals at the zoo but it's really not. It's sweet because you're just looking at the rhino and then all the sudden your guide is freaking out and telling you to run the other direction and you freak out and realize that you're actually just in the wild with these huge, awesome animals. It's sweet. I wish I could do it again. I don't want you to be jealous. But seriously, it was so great. 

Sorry I've been terrible at the whole blogging thing while i've been here. I thought it had only been a week since i last posted... oops! Things have just been crazy and time is flying by. I'm putting up a link to one of the projects we're working on right now. You can read all about it and donate or spread the word if you want!

http://fundly.com/helpinternationalchildfeedingprogram