Africa Africa Africa

So its been a pretty rainy week so far here, but I can't complain. I definitely like the cooler temperatures...my skin can't handle the sun here! We started building a mushroom farm this week at "Mama's" house. She's great. A womens group will be taking care of the mushrooms, harvesting them, and selling them; this will give them a little income on the side to help them out. Along with building the structure, we are providing business training to the womens group to help them handle the money. I'm not so much apart of the business part as the actual building. Me and a couple other girls were in charge of machete-ing some support beams. It was definitely fun to take out some stress on those logs! We are working with this HIV clinic, helping them out in different ways. Tomorrow we will be building them an adobe stove and hopefully starting a mushroom farm at their community center. I actually really enjoy doing the manual work, because you see the results of your time right away, and it's nice to see how grateful people are for the help. This past weekend we went to jinja where some of us BUNJEE jumped and most of us rafted the nile. I did not raft the nile because it was too expensive for me..but apparently it was quite an experience. It is Class 6, which they don't even allow in the US unless you are like certified. Peoples rafts flipped lots of times haha it must have been funny to see. I did however bunjee jump and it was great! I'm surprised at how not scary it was; it was just really fun! It's something Ive always wanted to do, so it's nice I can cross that off my list..and I did it in Africa over the nile which is always cool too haha. This week we are also going to meet with a youth outreach group and observe them teaching AIDS awareness to a school so we can learn how to do it, so in the future we can do it on our own. This group is made up of teenagers, all around the age of 18 or 19. They make such a difference in the community, it is just so amazing to see people younger than me doing so much to help those around them. They are very inspiring. Life is great here in Lugazi. We have gotten to know so many great people that have already changed my life for the better. Hope everything is well back home! Miss you lots.

"Mzungu how ah you?"

I AM IN AFRICA! I can't believe it. It is AMAZING here. Seriously, the most beautiful place I have ever been. We've almost been here for a week in our little town of Lugazi. We have done so much I dont even know where to start! I will summarize the highlights. First of all, I love where we live. Our home is perfect, all 28 of us can fit. I have gotten used to geckos running around in my room, and cockroaches; I'll be so tough back in the states! We haven't had running water in the home so we have to use this pump outside to "shower", brush our teeth, etc. Also, there is an "outhouse" in the back aka a concrete hole in the ground. We dont have much here, but we dont need any more. Wherever we go, whether it be in our little neighborhood (we live on a hill in like the jungle surrounded by huts) or in town all we hear is "MZUNGU!" or "OBAMA!" haha. Mzungu=white person. The kids get SO EXCITED to see us, its really funny. They really love Obama here too, they have necklaces of him sold in the market, it's great. We went to the source of the nile and rode in a little boat down the river; it was really cool to actually be IN the nile, since ive learned about it since I was a little kid. I still can't believe were actually in Africa! Sometimes were just like "guys....we are in Uganda" haha it is surreal. On Sunday we got to go to church. Half of us went to an LDS branch in Mukono and half of us went to a branch in Jinga. I went to Jinga and it was amazing! It was held in this nice little church building; it is so awesome how the church is the same wherever you go. The people were so happy to see us, and they were so kind to us. They said they needed help in primary so my friends Aly, Lizzie, and I went in to sit with the kids (or so we thought) but we walked in and they handed us the manuel and said "teach". We were like uhh okay! So we tried to teach a lesson about the priesthood, but the kids really didnt seem to understand so we just ended up singing and playing games for a couple of hours. It was really fun! This week we've just been getting exposed to various projects we can be apart of. Some people will be working in the hospital, some will help build adobe stoves and square foot gardens, some will be doing teacher training in schools, some will be doing public health and education, and the list goes on. The past couple days I have been helping to build some adobe stoves. It is such a simple and effective project! It cuts the price down, it is a much healthier oven than an open fire because the smoke goes out a chimney instead of in the room, and it cuts down on the time to cook. Its been really fun to just get dirty and help with the manual labor. Weve been going to the same neighborhood to build them so ive gotten to know a couple kids and I just love seeing them! They are so sweet. Last night a couple of us decided to walk up past our house to see what was up the road. Little did we know, about 4 minutes up the road is a lookout point with a 360 view of Lugazi. It is AMAZING. Seriously, so so beautiful. I feel so blessed to be in a place like this! On one side it is just green rolling hills, and the other side is our town of Lugazi. I took pictures, but they do not do it justice. I am so happy to be here to serve the people in Lugazi! Thank you so much again for all your support in helping me to get here! Hope all is well in the states! and ps Happy Belated Mom! Love you all!

Some pictahhhs

Here are some pictures from the last couple days in Amsterdam!

This is on our train ride from the airport to central station...it was quite an experience trying to move our suitcases throughout the train, as you can see we were a little crowded in our seats!


Aly and I at "Homo Monument", just a little party we came across haha it was great.

Vondelpark! We were really excited we found it haha.

Dam good city!

So incase you were not aware, my two friends Aly and Stacey and I are doing a 4 day lay over in Amsterdam before we head over to Uganda. We got here safely yesterday and it has certainly been an adventure ever since! We were so excited when we found each other at the airport, and after a while we figured out how to get on over to our hotel. Our hotel is pretty nice haha certainly nothing special but its all we need, a place to sleep. We have to go up three flights of stairs to get to our room, and they are seriously the steepest stairs I've ever been on. It was hilarious trying to get our bags up them. That must have been a site to see! We spent yesterday walking around and just seeing the city. We all missed home a little bit so when we saw the hard rock cafe we had to get dinner there (i know, laaame) haha but we were glad we did. As we were sitting at our table, none other than a bunch of lds missionaries came walking in! It was so fun to see them, we talked to them for a few minutes and then headed out. We explored some more and eventually made our way back to our hotel. We went to bed pretty early because we were so tired. Apparently we reallllyyy needed sleep..because we didnt wake up this morning until 1230! ah i havent slept in like that in so long, it was definitely needed though. Even though we got started late on our day, we got a lot accomplished. We found our way easily over to the Van Gogh museum (we're basically pros at Amsterdam now haha). It was so cool! I really have such an appreciation for art now that I've taken my humanities classes. It was so neat to see paintings in person that I studied at school. We then went over to the Anne Frank house which was really cool too. It is so amazing to actually see the places that I've learned about growing up. I feel so lucky to be able to travel like this and experience other countries! The culture is definitely very different here haha definitely a litttttle different from Provo; there's the constant smell of smoke for one thing. I love being here though it's really fun. I can't put up pictures right now, but hopefully some soon! We leave in 2 days for Uganda and are sooooo excited. It is going to be so amazing! Love you all!

Oli Otya?

Oli Otya = how are you, in Luganda aka the language I will be learning in just over a month! Time seriously flies, and I am getting so so so excited to just get over there. It's really hard to keep my mind on school work when I'm constantly researching the cheapest chacos I can find, trying to find suitable skirts, attempting to make a packing list, reading past volunteer's blogs about all their experiences, or trying to earn money for the trip..the list could go on and on! I've been attending lots of trainings to get prepared for the new culture and various projects I will be working on. So far I've gone to orphanage work, in-country safety, project planning, TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), and public health trainings. It is making it so real to me to hear all these stories from past trips..I can't wait to have experiences of my own to share! These trainings are with everyone associated with HELP International, not just those going to Uganda; it's so fun to meet the other volunteers going to places like Figi, El Salvador, and Guatemala. We've had a couple group meetings with just the volunteers going to Uganda, however, and those have been awesome! We're slowly getting to know each other; it's crazy that in a month these people will become my family for the next 12 weeks! The most recent meeting we had, 5 or 6 volunteers from last year came to answer questions and give us advice about everything. They were so so happy, and grateful for the opportunity to talk about their life-changing time spent in Lugazi. It was so awesome to see how excited they were to talk about it! I can only hope that I will have the same experiences.

I wanted to say thank you SO much for all of the support I've received. I am so grateful for the help, and I could not have made it to this point without all of the generous donations. So thank you thank you thank you.

Sooo here's a video that pretty much sums up why I'm so excited to go haha. Ashley, one of the country directors last year, decided to teach some kids the "soulja boy" dance. It's great. ENJOY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpW3Cbluonc

Getting started...

So I'm new to this whole blogging thing..this will go down as my first entry ever! So exciting. I will attach some general information about Uganda, and some info about HELP International, so you can get an idea of what the experience will be like!

Uganda is located in Eastern Africa; Winston Churchill coined it's name, the "Pearl of Africa" because of it's magnificent scenery and culture. Uganda is a beautiful place, but definitely has its share of problems. Over 60% of children live in poverty. Malaria, respiratory infections, and diarrhoea are the main causes of under-5 mortality. Nearly one half of the 2 million orphans are orphaned due to AIDS. The list goes on and on. I can't wait to get over there and help the people of Uganda!

Here is a direct excerpt from the HELP International website, giving an overview of the program in Uganda:

"HELP International has been in Uganda for three years. We live in a village called Lugazi which is a small town of about 33,000 people. Lugazi is surrounded by sugar cane plantations, and many of the inhabitants are poor laborers. Just outside of the sugar cane fields are remote villages where we bring many of our projects. Projects in Uganda include: HIV/AIDS support group, business training, adobe stoves, square-foot gardening, public health campaigns, support for children with disability, and more.
Country Description: Uganda is in East Africa and is known as the "Pearl of Africa" because of its lush jungle and rolling hills. Though Uganda lays on the mouth of the Nile River and is replete with natural resources, the Ugandan people remain deeply impoverished. The official language is English, however in Lugazi, many people also speak a tribal language called Luganda. Translators are always readily avaible and most volunteeers end up learning alittle of Luganda."

I can't wait! Only a few more months. Now i have to seriously focus on fundraising for this amazing trip!