giving out meds

Doctors from the US who came to give the children of Hope School vitamins & vaccinations.

Lindsay looking much more excited about the shots than the children did.


Cassie cut herself on on of the vaccine bottles while she was trying to fill a needle and she almost fainted; it was very sad.

Some of the children and teachers lined up to receive their tetanus shots.

Filling a needle with the tetanus vaccine.

A Ugandan nurse who helped administer the shots.

teachers

Lindsay working with the teacher she co-taught with named Innocent.

Stella, Innocent, and Lindsay marking books in the teacher's room.



Me and Edith. She is the headmaster's wife as well as a teacher in P2. She and I worked together all summer and I found her to be very intelligent, wise, and overall delightful.

Cassie and Lindsay with the financial manager of the school Atwooki.

Me with Moses and Patrick.

Becca, Lindsay, Cassie, and I with most of the Hope School staff.

faces of Uganda

One of the boys in the neighborhood catchinga wide-eyed glance at the other children as they play with the football we gave them.

Besti - this girl has attitude to spare, but she's also got a tender heart.


funny faces


Joseph


Namanya & Aneti



This girl showed up at the Bible study in my neighborhood. I only met her once but she was just too cute, I had to take a picture.


A boy against a brick wall directly outside of my back door.


Aneti

life in the nursery class

Some children in the nursery class sorting the shapes. I made all of these shape cut-outs in different sizes and colors and then had them sort based on color, shape, and size

at different times. They had a lot of fun with this, sometimes they even raced to see who could get done the fastest. :O)


A couple girls from the class are coloring in the shapes they can see on the poster I made. On this day they were looking for, and coloring in rectangles. As you can see on days before they had found other shapes and colored them in.

Some of the children playing with play-dough. Before I came they had never seen it before so they are pretty amazed that they can use this green stuff to make things. We used them to make shapes, right here they are attempting to make rectangles.

A boy drawing a circle for me during our unit on shapes, sizes, and colors.

A girl putting together a shape puzzle that I made during our unit on shapes, sizes, and colors.

Nursery kids playing outside. They love my camera and think it's the coolest thing in the world so it's pretty easy to get them to smile and strike a pose.

This picture was taken during my lesson on positions (in front of, behind, on top of, under, etc...). This little girl, Fiona, was demonstrating under for everyone.

Adventures

A lion at Queen Elizabeth National Park. We were so close! It was amazing, and kind of scary. I never really thought I would be able to see wild animals just out in the open like I have been able to do here. I have seen some neat stuff just around my house too. Mostly small stuff but I was swimming at a local lake and these monkeys came down a tree to stare at me. It was so funny. They were looking at me like I was crazy. It was really cool.

Hippos in Queen Elizabeth National Park. How sweet, they're all cuddled up. :O)

Elephants crossing the road in Queen Elizabeth National Park. There were so many elephants. we actually even got to see some brand new baby ones. Unfortunately one of them died, but it turned out to be pretty cool because at least 25 elephants all gathered around to protect the dead body. They were pretty defensive it was really neat to see them so fired up, they were trumpeting and everything.


A group of us hiking up and over the Rwenzori Mountains. The elevation we reached was about 9,000 ft

Me standing on part of the mountain looking out.

pics for real

some neighbors of mine named Besti and Richard

neighbor kids - so cute!

the market in Fort Portal

Tea field by Hope school

It is SO beautiful!!!

Tea field again

Amazing sunset near my house

Papyrus

children in my nursery class playing with their homemade dolls outside

a few pics

I have really no time to write because my time on the computer is almost up but I was able to get a few (maybe) picstures up. It said it loaded all three but I think only my backyard came up. :O(

my backyard

grasshoppers, etc...

FYI, grasshoppers don't taste that bad. How do I know, you ask? I know because on Thursday evening I had the opportunity to eat one, actually I ate two. Grasshoppers are a delicacy here and are a sign of respect and admiration, so when our neighbor offered me and one of the other interns, Cassie, some we felt that we couldn't refuse. The whole experience was actually quite fascinating. First they pull off the wings, legs, and tails then they fry the bodies and salt them. By the time they are all cooked they don't really look like grasshoppers and more, they look something like crunchy fried onions. The taste is pretty unique. I'd say that that best way I could describe it is that it tasted sort of like buttered popcorn and chicken mixed together. It was definitely not the worst thing I've ever tasted but I certainly do not plan on eating them again anytime soon. Thankfully grasshoppers are not really in season so I don't think I will have too many people offering them to me again. I have some pictures of my first grasshopper tasting and I will try to post them using a different computer sometime within the next few days.

*Interesting fact: Grasshoppers are so special in this culture that if a wife prepares them for her husband he must go out and buy her a gift, usually a new clothe, to show his gratitude for the snack.

The second interesting cultural experience I had this week was attending an introduction. An introduction is kind of a pre-wedding wedding. Traditionally it is the time when the groom comes to declare his desire to marry the the bride and a bride price is negotiated between the groom's family and the bride's family. This still happens today, but now it is usually all a dramatic performance. The dowry is usually arranged ahead of time, so the negotiating is really just for show. The whole ceremony is VERY long. We arrived at 11:00am, we sat around until almost 1:00pm waiting for the groom to be invited to the house, from 1:00pm until almost 4:00pm we all sat around outside under a make-shift tent and watched as the two families debated how many cows the bride was worth (literally, I'm not just saying that to be funny). Then lunch was served. By the time we left it was just about 5:00pm and we were the first to leave! The introduction continued long after we left. In general I found it interesting but I'm not gonna lie it eventually got a bit boring. I think it might have been better had I understood more of what was being said. There was some interpretation, but not much.

Lastly, here's the up-date on teaching at Hope school. I am now splitting my time between the P2 class and the nursery class (like Kindergarten). The nursery class is particularly interesting. There are 48 students and only one teacher. They have very limited resources to work with. The only toys they have are dolls that they have made out of straw, balls that they have made out of various materials roped together, and two floppy, Frisbee-like discs. The teacher does a pretty good job with the children. She tries her best to give them opportunities to learn by doing hands-on activities but it is difficult with so many kids. I have enjoyed watching how classes are conducted. In general, Ugandan education is very different from Western education. To begin with, they do not have any textbooks so the students spend the majority to their time in class copying down everything the teacher has written on the board. Secondly, they are taught to memorize everything. Third, the national curriculum is, in my opinion, extremely random. For example, last week the children in the nursery class were learning about different parts of the body (i.e. arms, legs, etc...), next week they are going to learn about the creation of the world and the numbers 11-20. I don't really understand why the Ugandan government has created a curriculum like this, but they have and the teachers are required to follow it. It is all very interesting.

up-date

It seems as though pictures are still not a possibility right now. :O( Apparently the internet connection here is faulty. I don't really know what that means but that's what it says in the little box that pops up everytime I try to post a picture. I will continue to try and maybe one day it will work.

I don't need pictures, however, to let you all know how I am doing. I am doing very well. Cassie, Lindsay and I moved into our house on Tuesday and to our delight we discovered that we do actually have electricity....sometimes. It comes and goes, mostly goes, but when it works it is nice. We are getting along nicely in our cramped little apartment. The biggest problem is the cho. I will never take a toilet for granted again. The cho is possibly the nastiest thing ever. It smells rancid. Imagine smelling a barn and then amplifying that by 10, that's what the cho smells like, and I wish I was kidding. What's even worse is that I have used other peoples chos and they do not smell nearly as bad. I don't know what's up with the one that came with our house but something's got to be done because I am sure it's violating a number of EPA codes.

As far as school is concerned, it is going well. I am in the P2 class (somewhat like second grade). It is very interesting to observe the class but it's hard for me to follow. Fortunately for the kids, and somewhat unfortunately for me, almost the entire class is conducted in Rutooro (Ro-tor-o), which is the native language here. I mostly sit back, watch, and mark papers for the teachers. I do, however, get to teach music (a.k.a. I attempt to teach them very simple songs by singing for them and then slowly going over each of the words until the majority of the class can say something that resembles the words of the song), and art (I haven't actually done that yet) I'm not sure they'll want me to continue to teach that subject once they see me draw. I will probably teach some English at some point also. I am really looking forward to getting more involved. The students here are generally very dedicated and eager to learn. It's is a joy to be around them.

I will continue to post up-dates and attempt to post pictures.

problem with pictures

I tried but was unable to upload any images to the blog. I will continue to try but it may not be possible. :O( If that is the case I will just post a lot of pictures when I get home. But in the mean time I will just write out some blog entries because the blog is still the best way to keep in touch with everyone. I will have limited access to a computer while I am here so even when I do get a chance to use one I won't have much time. It's much easier for me to type up something that many people can read rather than writing tons of individual e-mails.

Well, as I'm sure you've figured out, I have made it to Uganda safely. The trip was super long but it went really smoothly. I am in Fort Portal now. I like it here so far. It is absolutely beautiful, but is also pretty poor. My house, the one I'm sharing with Lindsay and Cassie, is very small. It has two little rooms. There is no water or electricity, our "toilet" or "cho" is down a little hill behind our place. The shower room (it's really just a little closet type place with a door) is right next to the cho. The neighbors seem to be very nice and I'm looking forward to developing better relationships with them. The neighborhood children are really cute but they don't speak any English...oh wait, that's not true, they do know how to ask for sweets. ;O) All in all, it's bee a little overwhelming but in general it's pleasant. I still do not know what exactly I am supposed to be doing, I will fide out in the next few days. I will up-date you all again when I get the chance.

Ramada Inn

I hardly took any pictures today, mostly because we're not in Uganda yet so I just didn't see the point. So unfortunately this is the best one, the only one, I have from the day. This is some of the group standing in front of the Ramada Inn desk checking in after a very long and arduous trip from the airport. In short we were dropped off at the airport by our somewhat grumpy bus driver and had to figure out how to get our 24 pieces of luggage from the airport to the hotel for the night. We managed and are now fairly comfortable in our rooms but tomorro it'll all happen again as we attempt to get back to the airport. Our flight leaves at 8:00am so we need to be up bright and early (3:45am) to begin haulling all of our stuff back to the airport. hmmmm.....this is what I wanted to do, right?

Good-Bye Nani!

Tonight I went over to my brother's house to to spend some time with him, his wife, and my niece and nephew (Arabella and Tucker). Below are a few pictures of the kids saying good-bye to me, their "Nani" (that's the nickname Tucker gave me when he was too young to say my real name; it's stuck over the years).

Bella and I playing on the couch. She has no idea I'm leaving, so while I'm saying good-bye she's saying "Hey, the TV that's on in the corner is really interesting."

Here's another picture of me and Bella playing only this one was taken by my three-year-old nephew Tucker. Nice work Tucker! You must take after your uncle Greg. :O)

This is Tucker giving me a "floor hug" good-bye, because regular hugs are SO last year.

phase 1 of packing complete

Me and my "packing buddy" Emily looking mighty proud at our accomplishment of almost fitting everything for the Chedesters (missionary family in Uganda) in one suitcase. It took some brain power to figure out how to get it all in but between the two of us we came up with some pretty clever ideas.

Thanks for your help Emily! :O)

healthy as a spring chicken

Yessssss! I can still go to Uganda...

and I'm really jazzed about that!

• I just went to see my doctor this morning and he said that the blood tests I had done on Thursday indicate that my liver enzyme levels have dropped dramatically and are now almost back to normal. This means I am healthy enough to leave on May 30th and can begin taking the Typhoid vaccine tonight. I am so thankful, and in retrospect I am actually really glad that all this craziness happened when it did. It gave me time to reflect and pray and now feel more confirmed in my calling to go than I did before.

• Thanks again to all those who were praying for me and supporting me in these last few weeks. You have been such an encouragement.

FUO becomes FKO

me looking at my thermometer quizzically

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that my FUO (Fever of Unknown Origin) is now a FKO (Fever of Known Origin). The bad news is the origin. I have been sick for almost two weeks now with a sort of hybrid disease. I've had a combo of Yellow Fever (due to a vaccine I received weeks ago) and Mononucleosis (mono for short). One positive thing is that I am now currently into the full blown mono stage and have lost all signs of yellow fever. Boy, can I find a silver lining, or what?

I am posting this information on my blog about Uganda because there is a chance that this illness could effect my ability to go to Uganda. Mono is a six week disease and everyone reacts to it differently. Right now I am feeling alright but my blood tests from last week indicate that my liver isn't sharing my feelings. My liver levels are high, or something to that affect, and that has to get back to normal before I can take my Typhoid vaccine. All this needs to happen in a matter of weeks. So I'm getting a little concerned. I am going to have another blood test in two weeks and hopefully that will come back normal and I'll be able to get on with my life.

Thank you to so many of you for your prayers and support during this time. I have been very encouraged by all the phone calls and e-mails I have received. I'll keep you posted on how I am doing.

retreat pictures per Sharon's request

more pictures from the intern retreat...

Reflection on the lake

Sarah (intern to Ireland) on the dock

intern silhouette


tree