April

For once I was rather eager to prance out of bed at 6:30 in the morning. The moment marked the start of my holiday! Of course, It had to begin with a bazaar experience. As I wondered towards my bus I realised my local trading centre was strangely busy. Children and women were crawling around everywhere on all fours. I did question for a moment whether I'd missed out on some strange early morning ritual for the past 3 months. However, I quickly placed the cause: rain. When it rains in Uganda the earth is swamped with giant flying white ants. A edible delicacy in Uganda. The ants are caught by their wings and then captured in plastic bags, boxes, hats, pans and pockets. A cheeky child may even sneak the odd treat and swallow a live ant before the mid afternoon fry up. I have yet to try the delicacy. I do question my whether my taste buds will approve.

Looking back at April I can't help but laugh. I have genually really enjoying my work and I have started to settle into my community really well. As cheesy as it may sound, it is starting to feel like home. All the children in my community are starting to call out at me as 'Madaaaaaaam Joyceyyyy, how are you???" rather than "MUZUNGO!!!" (meaning 'white person' in Lusoga) which is a nice change. My Lusoga is also improving by the day. My local chipatti man finds it hilarious every time I greet him and ask for chipattis in Lusoga. He then is convinced I've become fluent over night and starts an extended conversation with me in Lusoga, assuming I understand every word. I just nod and smile. Who knows what I'm agreeing to.

One event we held this month was a Health Talk. We invited  a nurse from our local clinic to give a health talk to our out-of-school youth group. It was all very entertaining and interesting! Several of the youth were convinced that swallowing capsules whole will disintegrate your bowels. I was a live testimony that this is in fact a myth. Taking into account the number of capsules I've had to take over the past few months, my intestines would be non-existent by now! Another member was convinced that HIV is removed from your body when you give birth. Reasoning: there is so much blood loss. Unfortunately, we had to explain why this was also a myth. The purpose of the talk was also to restore their faith in the local health centre. Many myths are spread about the centre and hence many community members fail to visit. We were very encouraged by the fact that 3 of the youth came to the health centre the next day for HIV and STI testing!

Tonight I'm on a mission to start a 'Konigininge Nacht' in Jinja town. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the only orange loony in town. Oh well!

Women at our Health Talk

Visiting Peter's home (Left to Right: Samuel, Rose, Joel, Me and Peter)

At Bugoto Landing Site