Football Madness!

Well I can’t believe that tomorrow is Nate’s last day.  I am not going to lie he couldn’t be more excited to get to NYC and start his job, or he might even be more excited for a hot shower.   I get pretty sad just thinking about him leaving.  I know it will all be okay but I think my life is going to change dramatically. It’s been such a GREAT week!  

We went to Kampala on Saturday and went to the Football (soccer) Game it was a BLAST! We had so much fun cheering with all the fans.  I have never had my ears ring as hard as when we were in that stadium.  The fans went nuts! We played Congo and won 4-0 it was a really exciting game.  The game started at 4 and they told us to be in the stadium no later than 1 so we were there 3 hours early.  You know how people get loud once the game starts? Well that isn’t the case here, they were blowing their horns and dancing and yelling well before we even got there.  It was definitely an amazing experience being there with all the excitement.  Nate started a fight because this guy was throwing water on us. I will let him tell the story.

We had pork at this restaurant and it was delicious!! Nate made himself sick eating so much pork we had to leave church early because he thought he wasn’t going to be able to hold it down.  This poor boys stomach just isn’t cut out for Africa. 

Sunday night was probably on of the best experiences we have had so far here in Uganda.  Thomas, Bruno, and Monday (all brothers) had us over for dinner.  They prepared this wonderful meal.  I even was allowed to pour some sugar in the juice.  I asked to help and it was like I was the annoying 5 year old that wants to help but is incapable so she let me put 4 spoonfuls of sugar in the homemade pineapple/mango/passion fruit drink. They were so kind and told us, (lets be honest it was Nate) how much we had done for them.  They gave us these gifts, you should see Nate’s shirts and the purse they gave me it was so nice.

 I met this cute little boy that is disabled today his name is Sam. Sam has just been put on the floor his whole life so he can't walk and his legs have become deformed.  It is pretty sad because many of the children with disabilities will have mental disabilities but not physical and because the parents don’t know what to do with them they become more physically disabled than they were. We are working with this man named Moses to build him a chair and help make the house a better situation for Sam.

Things are going really well. I really love it here in Africa.  It definitely won’t be the same without Nate.  I have found a few more schools that we can do “Proud to be a Girl” with and I am really looking forward to that.  I am sorry to be missing all these Birthdays and Father’s Day but I hope you know that I love you all and think of you often!

Hi all,

We have had a great week this week.  On Saturday we went to Kampala for the Uganda vs. Congo soccer game.  I don’t love soccer, but I wanted to experience a game in a place where soccer is life.  It is literally the only thing that many of them have to look forward to.  We wanted to make sure that there was absolutely no question which team we were rooting for so that we didn’t get beat up if the game didn’t go well.  We bought Uganda jerseys, painted our faces, and got bracelets.  The people were so excited that we would cheer for their team.  I think we only saw two other white people in the entire stadium of 40,000 people.

The game is unlike any other sporting event I have ever been to.  We were told to come extremely early to the game, and we still have no idea why.  There were probably only a few hundred people there three hours early but it was already louder than any college football or Jazz game I’ve ever been to.  Uganda ended up winning 4-0 and when we left the stadium our ears were ringing for hours.  I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere so crazy or so loud in my life.

Many of the people like to throw water on all the other fans when something good happens.  We had a drunk guy throwing water right on me and Liz one row down from us.  Without thinking, I reached down and pushed him.  I guess I forgot how light Africans are because he fell a few rows down.  It was lucky that I reached around someone else to push him and he didn’t know who it was because I could be in a hospital right now.  He got up screaming and yelling at got mad at a few people around us.  Several people grabbed him before he could throw any punches.  I just sat back and acted like I didn’t have any part in it:)

I think Liz talked a lot about our experience Sunday night with the family that owns the furniture store and travel agency.  I think it was a great experience to see that we had made a difference somewhere.  We have become very good friends with their family and that was the second time that we were invited over for dinner.

I was also able to go golfing today at the golf course here in Lugazi.  It was built by the Indian family that owns all of the sugar cane fields around here.  I think it is basically a personal 18 hole course in their backyard because the clubhouse is attached to their mansion and no one else in town can afford it.  It was an absolutely beautiful course.  It was quite the change in price from Scottsdale to here.  I got 18 holes, a personal caddy, balls, club rental, and water for 30,000 shillings.  (About $12)

It will be my last time at the Naggalama and Lugazi business classes tomorrow.  The have been a lot of fun and very successful. (Especially in Lugazi)  I think overall our time here has been a great experience and has taught us a lot. 

 Love, Liz & Nate

Loving Lugazi

So we got back from the safari and now we are back to work.  we went to church in Mukono yesterday.  There is a member of the Church that helps out with proud to be a girl.  His name is Wilson, he took me aside on sunday and showed me that he is filling out his papers to go on a Mission.  Wilson is 24 years old and will be a FANTASTIC missionary!

On Sunday Nate and I went to "Happy Child" this is a program where they go and play with these kids that are either orphans or neglected by their parents.  Nate had a rough time at the school he tripped trying to catch a ball and fell and  bled all over his white shirt.  The kids were super cute and loved playing with us. 

I went to proud to be a girl this morning. We had a lot of fun with the girls. We had been talking to them about following their dreams.  One girl came up to me and said I really want to be a singer but when I go to bed at night my dreams are never about singing.  I thought it was super cute! There is a lot of good that can be done with these girls.


(sorry this is all past tense, now it is Friday)
I absolutely LOVED Wednesday, Nate was able to go to proud to be a girl with me.  When we introduced ourselves I said that Nate was my husband and the kids went absolutely nuts! They were cheering and just got all riled up, I have never had anyone be so excited about our marriage :) I spoke to the girls about abstinence and rape as well as relationships with boys.  It was really an awesome experience.  I feel like things are just getting better and better each time. So Nate went with the boys and spoke to them about respecting women and abstinance.  It was so funny after they were done, Wilson came up to me and said, "
Wow I had no idea your husband was such a good speaker."

Best picture ever, boys making pads!

Later that day we went to another school and due to communication issues we actually had already been there. It was okay because we have made some new changes and still taught them.  We were playing tag with these cute little kids and one of the teachers told me that I needed to be a teacher because I could play with children.

Nate has totally been in his element teaching about savings this week, you should have seen him on Wednesday in Lugazi he extended the class like 40 min because he was so excited about what they were talking about. We went to a new village to teach a class yesterday, we are going to try and give this community the cirruculum because we aren't able to start any more business classes.  We are also going to see if we can get some benches built for their school because the children have no place to sit.  These poor teachers have gone without pay for the last 3 months. It's pretty incredible that they would still come to work.

So Proud to be a GIRL!

We are starting this project with the this school where me and Elaine are going to teach reading and English classes every Friday.  I am super excited about teaching.  I taught a 1st grade class today they were so fun.  I just wish we would have been able to figure this stuff out when we first got here. I feel like the ball is just starting to get rolling with most things now that we are getting ready to leave.

We just had 5 new volunteers come in yesterday, it's really interesting having new people here. The best part of all of this is that all the girls go to Nate when they want him to negotiate with the country directors because Nate just has a way of getting people to do what he wants with out them even knowing it.  I don't know how he does it! We went to the rain-forest lodge again it was so so FUN!



Hey.  Sorry we haven't written anything for awhile.  I don't feel like we've had anything especially exciting or out of the ordinary happen this week.  Our business classes continue to go well, especially in Lugazi.  This week we began our finance unit and have been teaching budgeting, personal finance, financial statements, etc.  I feel that this is the area that Africans are the weakest in when it comes to businesses.  This is also where I feel we've made the strongest impact with consulting individual businesses as well.

When we were talking about saving in Lugazi on Wednesday night, one of the students asked, "these things you are teaching us about saving are not part of our culture, how can we change this?"  At that point I pointed out that the group in the business class were all the leaders in the community and that this group was a council as much as they were a class.  We stopped the teaching and had a long discussion on how they can change the mindset about saving.  It was also interesting to learn that banks give negative interest on their savings accounts.  It's not a small amount like some accounts hit during the financial crisis - it's like negative 20%.  Once you deposit about 1 million shillings ($500) the rate hits zero percent interest.  This is to keep only the foreign business owners and the very wealthy few in the banks.  Pretty crazy. $500 is more than many of them will earn in 10 years. A normal loan for a member of the wealthy class in Lugazi will be about 35% interest.

I also wanted to mention our experience at the pad making classes this week that began in Naggalama.  We have been teaching the ladies business skills in order for them to start a reusable pad business.  This week another organization from Utah came to teach them how to make the pads.  As you can see from the picture, the boys were having a little to much fun making Natex brand feminine hygiene products.  The highlight of that day was one of the ladies from the other organization telling us that "You just do this once, but I do this EVERY day."  Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious that the ladies that came to make the pads were a lot more interested in their resumes and personal accomplishments than the people they were here to serve.

We love you!

Liz & Nate

Disneyland? Nope its the real thing

Giraffes fighting with their necks!

So we just got back from our 3 day Safari!! It was so so AWESOME!! We saw giraffes like 5 feet from our car and elephants and a Lion, we saw a million hippos and just had a blast seeing all the crazy animals.  It was super funny some of the language barriers of our trip.  Our guide, Thomas said we were going on a Launch cruise but if you say launch with an African accent it sounds like a Lunch cruise. It is one thing to see these animals in a zoo but to see them in their natural habitat it is CRAZY! We were driving along the road and there was buffalo skin in the tree.  The guide told us that a leopard attacked the buffalo and then started being chased by a lion so took the buffalo up into the tree. Isn’t that CRAZY??? We met some really nice people; one guy was from the same tribe as Kony.  He was telling Nate how he lived in the woods escaping the LRA, he was such a nice guy.  It’s so insane, you hear all these stories but when you meet these people and hear about their lives it is really crazy what people go through.  Our second night we stayed in a grass hut! I was so excited, especially because Nate and I got our own hut. We really felt like we were in Africa in our hut.  It’s funny when staying in a hut feels like a luxury compared to our house here in Lugazi.

This wart hog tried to attack some of the girls in our group, pretty funny.  One girl says that what you get when you base your perception of an animal off of Lion King

After an amazing day of safari(ing) we went and saw there tribal dancers.  They did a special presentation just for us.  I don’t think I have ever seen Nate shake it like he did last night.  It was hillarous he had a grass skirt on and  he made Shakira look like she didn’t know what she was doing. It was a blast and we all danced with the village kids.  The dancing started with our group and about 10 other local people and about 2 min later there were probably over 100 people.  It was AWESOME!

Our weekend trip was awesome.  I think it was the first time that I’ve truly felt that we were getting the African experience.  Before this, we could have been in any impoverished country and not known the difference.  But yesterday was all about elephants, lions, giraffes, sleeping in grass huts, and shaking your booty with a grass skirt (Hawaiian style!)  I felt like the trip went really well.  I feel like our pictures could tell the story a lot better than telling you about it.

   

We starting the morning out with a game drive and got way close to giraffes, elephants, antelope, a lion, and a bunch of other cool animals.  Our tour guide was named Tavan and he was great.  He certainly did not look like your typical safari tour guide.  He looked like he deserted from the war in Sudan and came to do safaris so that no one could find him.  He was wearing a full military suit and boots and carried a AK-47 or uzi or some kind of machine gun.  But he was super nice and knew a ton about all of the animals.  I guess he has been doing it for about 12 years.  He had us pull over and all jump out and took us over to a huge mound of dirt.  Then he starting kicking it open and a ton of HUGE termites came out.  He was explaining how hard they bite and picked one up.  The thing was going crazy and he had tons of blood dripping off his hands.  Then he started talking about how it was edible and he ATE it!  Worse than trying to eat an angry wasp.  So many of us wanted pictures of it that he ended up eating about five of them.  So crazy!

Our lovely grass hut

After the safari we went on a jungle cruise up the Nile river.  It was just like Disneyland.  I kept having to remind myself that Disneyland was imitating where we really were and not the other way around.  We saw tons of hippos and some huge alligators on our cruise up to the falls.  Way cool.

The dance in the evening was way fun.  It seemed like something you would see at the Polynesian cultural center with the drums and grass skirts.  They invited us all to come dance with them.  I was taking pictures of Liz when one of the ladies came up to me and put a grass skirt on.  I don’t really remember much after that but I’m told I went pretty crazy!  Just about the entire village joined us after they heard there were a bunch of crazy muzungus dancing!  Way fun.  Afterwords literally slept in a grass hut.  Quite the African experience.  The stars out there made Lake Powell look like the little stickers you put on your ceiling.

Growing Fat!

So we just got back from Nagalama teaching business classes and this is that they said to me, We did not recognize you Liz, you have grown fat! That is just the kind of thing I love to hear when I am coming to visit these women. So Nate’s clothes are falling off his body and apparently I have grown FAT! I just love how brutally honest the people are here.  Maybe we wouldn’t be so obese as a country if our neighbors told us when we were gaining weight.

So it’s official we have parasites and now that we are on medication life is much better! Sunday we had district conference and there were like 1500 members there, it was INSANE! It was really fun to see all the missionaries and members. The guys that Nate helps with consulting their business invited us over to their house for dinner on Sunday.  It was really interesting to see how they treat guests, they didn’t even sit at the table with us. 

So did we tell you we are going on a SAFARI??? We leave tomorrow morning and were super excited.  Due to Nate’s good persuasion skills we have the entire team going on the safari.  Yesterday we had the grand opening of Musana Jewelry.  This is a group of women that Help International helped them start a jewelry, they had the mayor there and lots of people.  They had the Muzungo’s (white girls) do a freeze dance, it was a BLAST!

We had a proud to be a girl function yesterday as well.  We got asked some crazy questions.  One girl asked me if she prayed would it prevent her from getting pregnant.  There are lots of myths here about ways to prevent HIV/AIDS and how to avoid pregnancy.  The headmaster was really strict about us staying one hour.  Usually we take 2- 2 ½ hours so we were limited on time.  The headmaster grabbed me and told me it was time to go.  The girls started going crazy and it felt like we were in a mob.  They started grabbing my hair (they haven’t felt a white person’s hair before) they were hugging us and asking for our email. It got pretty insane, they were all acting calm while we were talking and then once the headmaster said we needed to leave it turned into a mad house!

Life is WONDERFUL! I love Africa, the people are amazing and we are enjoying being with them.  Ooh yeah yesterday I went to our friend Eric’s house he is interested in the church.  He came to church on Sunday and wants to be baptized.  We taught him all about the book of Mormon, it was just great how receptive he was.  The missionaries aren’t allowed to come teach in Lugazi so I guess we are just teaching them.  

I think the last time I wrote on the blog was before I was sick.  I can't even remember the last time I wasn't sick so I don't think you've heard from me in awhile.  My appetite is finally starting to come back.  It's amazing how little food your body can run on.  I am just coming off of the see food diet and the results have been incredible.  (I wouldn't suggest trying it.  See Food = Immediately Lose Food)  I am not 100% sure of the kilo conversion rate but I am somewhere between 140-145 lbs.  Which is down about 20 lbs.

I thought it would be funny for you to know about how we get around town and to all of these villages.  Since no one can afford cars, there are really only two options: taxi, or boda boda (motorcycle).  At first you make think that the taxi sounds like the more attractive form of transportation.  But that would be false.  The boda bodas are actually kind of fun when you get over the fact that there are three people on an old motorcycle build for one that weaves in and out of cars, people, bicycles, and large mammals.  You just have to pray that the boda you selected has some form of shocks and that you are not with a driver that has a death wish.  I have been able to get over the fear of death (probably because I wouldn't mind dying in my current condition) and actually really enjoy boda rides though the sugar cane fields.
That leaves the taxis.
In America, a taxi is a private car that takes you down a nicely paved road.  It is usually quiet and has air conditioning.  If you are lucky, you can even watch the morning news or the financial report.  Usually the only complaint I have with my american taxi ride is the strong smell of curry coming off your friendly Indian taxi driver named Amir.
But that would be in America...

A taxi ride here is someone similar in that it has interesting smells and takes you places.  But that would be all.  It starts with a small, rickety old van that is designed to hold about 8 people.  The seats have been pulled out and they have somehow fit 12 nasty sweat soaked seats.  Then they proceed to cram 18-22 of the African upper-class and occasionally some sad muzungus.  This ride will not be for the faint of heart or claustrophobic.  The temperatures reach an uncomfortably humid 90 degrees and air conditioning was invented at least 30 years after said taxi was made.  That leaves 20 sweating people that usually haven’t bathed in days because bucket showers are so inconvenient.  One thing I have learned while here is that extreme heat amplifies smell.  And those smells can get pretty strong when you are smashed against the dirty window and there are five Africans on your lap, one under your seat, and two riding on the roof like the Romney’s dog.  But this ride will be no vacation. 

I forgot to mention how you board one of these hell-on-wheels contraptions.  Since a taxi is the only cheap option, they make up every other car on the road.  All you have to do is listen for the words “Kampala, kampala, kampala” and you know you are close.  At this point you should brace yourself because you are about to join a game of tug-a-war.  You will of course be providing the rope.  This war for passengers begins as a war of words but quickly escalates to an all-out brawl.  Opposing conductors will hold the door shut of enemy taxis so that passengers cannot board while the driver will attempt to drag you to their own.  Lugandan swear words fly and razor sharp broken bottles are wielded.  Finally the war is won and you are allowed to enter.  You are thrown to the back and the horrifying one-to-two hour ride begins.  “What is that smell?” You say to yourself.  It’s not just sweat, body odor, and dirty clothes.  Today is different. You are scared to glance under your seat to see what is coming home from the market today, but you finally gather the courage.  12 rotten fish.  Excellent.  Just when you begin think how horrible it will be to smell them for the next hour,  you see something else out of the corner of your eye.  “What could that be?” You say.  Then, it moves!  It’s a live chicken, taking a ride to its new home before it is slaughtered for dinner.

Aside from that, the ride isn’t too much different than the boda.  You begin weaving in and out of semi-trucks.  You have recently gotten over your fear of head-on collisions by driving on the left side of the road.  Usually you don’t like to look out the window because you feel that ignorance is bliss when it comes to the cars whizzing by you.  But today you have no choice because you happen to be smashed to the window.  You notice that something about today is familiar to home.  Then you realize, we are driving on the right side of the road!  And have been for 5 kilometers!  Just as you look up, you see the sugar cane laden semi approaching and you notice the drivers eyes are brown.  “Wait, if I can see his eyes…we are WAY to close.  I’M GOING TO DIE!” [swerve, wheels screech, face in African lady’s back]  We’re safe.  At least for now.

Things are going well.  We are enjoying our business classes.  Our reusable pad making lady’s will be learning how to make them next week.  We are excited to launch the business and see how they do.  Talk to you when we get back from the safari.

Love,

Liz and Nate

So we made it out of the house and built a school yesterday! It was super hard work but it was awesome.  The school that they are in right now doesn’t even have walls.  Nate wasn’t feeling the best so he’d work and then take a break.  It was amazing there was this woman working there all day with no breaks she was wearing a beanie and this sweater.  We were sweating to death, it was so HOT! But it was nice to work hard.  We found out that we all have parasites! YIKES!!! Nate and I went to the pharmacy to get the medicine (by the way we didn’t have a prescription) and we just asked for the medicine and he says how much do you want?

 So hopefully we will be getting better in the next couple of days. I went to this health outreach the other day we were giving out deworming pills.  I had a riot trying to figure out how to spell these crazy names.  The problem was that most of the people didn’t know how to spell their names; it was in this really small town. We ate chapattis at the Obama chapatti stand, this guy said this is my sister and I was going along with it and he thought it was the funniest thing ever.

TODAY was the best day ever! Nate and I escaped to Jinja and went swimming at the Nile Jinja resort, it was so nice and peaceful.  We say monkeys and had a great time just relaxing by the pool.  It only cost us like 3$ to swim! We ended up meeting this other girls that are volunteering here and they invited us to their house for dinner.  We went with them and they let us shower in their house, it was the nicest thing EVER! We were making dinner and the power went out so we ended up going out to eat.  It was a great day, Nate and I really loved being away from the house for a whole day.

So we had a funny experience on the Taxi home from Jinja, there were these 3 people we were talking to.  These guys were super hilarious, Nate and I were laughing the whole time.  They were making fun of the way that we talked by plugging their nose.  It was funny because we could understand them better when they were plugging their noses.  So we are getting out in Lugazi and the guy asks if we believe in God. We told him yes we are Christian and he says are you members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? I said yes, how did you know? He said so am I, I believe in the law of chastity.  It was pretty funny (totally made our day)

Good news! We are feeling better J Well I am feeling better and Nate is at about 75% which means we were able to leave the house. Nate has been teaching business classes the last two days and boy was I happy to be able to leave the house.  I was feeling so sick and then this morning it was a miracle I felt better!! We had proud to be a girl today and it was awesome! We went clear out in the middle of nowhere.  The guy that we went with was named Amos, he rented a car (which is a pretty big deal) he took us all out to these schools.  So you have to picture this, we are teaching a curriculum to girls to help empower them and help them with the difficult challenges that these girls face.  We are teaching about HIV/AIDS prevention and Amos takes us to an elementary school that is ages 4-9 maybe 10. But the majority of the children are 4 or 5.  None of them spoke any English so our class that was planned didn’t really work.  The girl who is the main speaker, Abby just had to modify everything and it just turned into them showing us their school and asking for us to build them a new facility.   I was able to speak to the kids for a little bit teaching them to be kind to one another and not to make fun of each other. 

When we went to the high school it was awesome! The girls had lots of good questions and then there were like 15 girls that were sitting around me and they had no questions.  I gave them a good little chat on why abstinence is so important.  But they were just all there sitting captive and then they found out I was married and were giggling when I showed them pictures of Nate.  I told them how he proposed and that they need to marry someone who is kind and loving.  It was a pretty cool experience.  (So I started writing this last night and after I said I was feeling better I threw up) it was so weird but I think I am done with being sick for the rest of my life. There is a girl in our group that got a parasite who they had to take to the hospital last night.  We have a lot to be grateful for, I would never want to spend the night in an African hospital.

Today Nate and I went to Kampala; Nate said he just needed to get out.  We went to get some good “American food” we were starving by the time we got there and finally found a place we could get a burger.  We literally took two bites and were completely full.  It was painful to eat, we were kind of disappointed that we couldn’t enjoy it that much but it was sure good to get some meat in our bodies. We decided that we could never be vegetarians. 

We went to teach some classes on dental hygiene to this village tonight.  It was kind of an awkward situation because they were under the impression we were giving treatment and pulling teeth and giving them tooth brushes and paste.  The girl that set it up was sick so we felt bad they were a little disappointed.  We just got back from the Lugazi business classes which are doing GREAT! We are going to have to find a new venue because there are so many people we don’t have enough seats for them.  I think that is a great problem to have.  So we are happy and excited about the things that are going on.

Last night Nate told me, “I know why we are here, this is your counseling internship and New York is my investment banking internship.” We are having lots of drama in the house and lots of the girls have been coming to me for advice and crying because they want to come home.  We are both learning lots of lessons we never thought were involved in this African adventure... But WE LOVE IT!!

Sick Week

We are both sick right now and it isn’t very fun.  Everyone is off on their adventures and Nate and I are stuck in bed.  We can’t really get too far away from a bathroom because who knows what will happen.  Nate started feeling sick on Wednesday morning.  It came on pretty suddenly and wasn’t able to help me teach the business class on Wednesday night.  We kept thinking he’d feel better and be able to go but then about 30 min before we had to leave Nate was positive he wouldn’t be able to make it.  Luckily we have this amazing guy named Sanga who helped teach the class.  Sanga was born in Rwanda and moved here before all genocide started happening. He became an accountant which made his family very proud.  One day he saw his sister crying and asked her what was wrong. She couldn’t go to school because she needed to go fetch firewood to help their mother make dinner. He was really disturbed by this and thought there must be a better way.  He came up with this idea of turning Garbage to fuel.  He ended up selling pretty much all he had and quit his job to start this business.  He talked about finding good opportunities and how you need to go after your dreams.  He is a really incredible man, Nate is now helping him write a grant to have this machine made in China.  So I was worried when Nate couldn’t come to the class but Sanga totally saved the day.  

We are loving the Jinga branch they are such an amazing group of people. There was a girl who taught the lesson in Relief Society that got baptized 3 weeks ago.  It was just amazing how well she did and how strong her testimony is. I was really impressed with her willingness to just do what she was asked to do.  We stayed after church this Sunday for a baptism.  There were two couples that were baptized; it was so cute to see all their little kids come up to them afterwards.  They were so happy! I had never seen 4 people be baptized all at once it was pretty neat.  Nate was called to be the Elders Quorum Teacher and the Youth Sunday school teacher while he is here.

 We went to Nagalama this week to teach our first business class to the group of women that are starting the reusable pad business.  We were under the impression we were teaching 15 women who knew English and could do math.  Well we ended up teaching 40 women and there were only 2 that spoke English.  There was a young girl about 17 or 18 that translated for us.  We asked them what their skills were and she wrote she had no skills.  We were trying to explain how valuable she would be to all these women. They were so kind and welcoming to us.  They had us try this pear but it tasted more like a leaf.  I felt bad not eating the whole thing but it wasn’t very good. The papaya was delicious though.  The fruit here is so much better than the fruit we have in the states. 

That night I went with a some of girls to meet with a group of elderly women.  Pastor Francis asked if we would do a physical activity with them.  The girls had planned to teach them the hokey pokey so we did that and had a good time and I was like you should teach us an African dance.  It was so much fun they got a drum out and this boy started playing and we just had a blast dancing with these women.  There was only one of the women that spoke English but it’s amazing how certain things like dancing and laughing are a universal language.

I was able to go to this project called proud to be a girl.  We went to a High School earlier this week to see if they would be willing to let us come and do an assembly at their school. We grouped up with this other organization here in Uganda. This project is seeking to empower women help them know more about HIV/AIDS prevention, self-esteem, helping these girls know that they can make a difference in society.  My favorite part was at the end when they were done lecturing they had a counseling time where girls could come up to us and ask questions.  There was a girl who came up and told me how she was teased and beat up at school.  It just broke my heart, these girls have a lot of questions about their periods and many of them have issues and no one they feel like they can turn to for answers.  The High School we went to was a boarding school so they only get to see their parents a few times a year.  There are two girls who were here last year that are leading this project and will be leaving in a few weeks.  Me and a girl named Whitney (who is hilarious, I love her) will hopefully will be able to be the speakers in the upcoming weeks.  We are trying to figure out how to make it more fun and not just a lecture.  I am excited to be more involved with it; we have 2 assemblies planned for next Tuesday. I just feel like this is right up my alley helping these girls with their problems and helping them to feel good about themselves.  It was interesting one of the girls I was telling her she was beautiful and she was like no I am not, I have black skin.  It was so sad she thought she couldn’t be beautiful with dark skin.  I told her that I wanted to have skin like hers. We learned the other night that many of the African people have never pictured God to be black and they have never pictured Satan to be white. It is really interesting to learn more of the culture and how they think about themselves. 

It takes everything I have not to want to take them all home with me.

One morning I went to get Nate a sprite and this girl came with me, I was asking her what she was going to do that day.  She told me that she hated Africa and she was deciding if she was going home or not.  Let me tell you more about this girl, she takes care of everyone.  She is an EMT and fixes all the sick people, she is on the food and supplies committee and just really good to help wherever she is needed.  She told me she felt like she wasn’t making a difference here and that she should just go home.  I bet we talked for a few hours about the things she was going through and I pretty much got to know lots about the struggles she is going through.  I think lots of people are having a hard time with the fact that most projects are taking a lot of time to get started and there is a lot of down time for most people.

We need you prayers so we can start feeling better and that Nate won’t be so mad that I brought him here to this place to come be sick in a bed that isn’t even comfortable.

Yes it’s true, I have been sick for several days now.  It began with dry heaving and a stomach that felt like a washing machine on Wednesday.  Ever since then I have felt like I was going to throw up but haven’t been able to.  Finally the light at the end of the tunnel finally appeared last night.  It’s too bad that the light had to be the small fly-covered window above the squatter.  We are both still sick today but are hoping our bodies can get rid of whatever we ate that was bad – probably that nasty pear in Naggalama.

I don’t have much to report on this week since I’ve spent almost all of my time sleeping and reading.  I had another meeting with the guys at the furniture store.  I showed them how to make an income statement and the results were a little bit discouraging.  They have been losing about $300 a month, 600,000 in their local money, for each of the last two months.  That’s about the equivalent of 6 people’s monthly salary each month (The more educated people that don’t do subsistence farming make between $20-50/ month.)   Still, they were excited to see how the information could help them with their business.  We also talked about the concept of commission-based pay.  Both the owner and the store manager were excited about that!

One of the evenings that I was feeling a little better, Liz and I took the bubbles outside the gate.  The kids went absolutely crazy.  Within about two minutes I bet we had thirty or forty kids surrounding us and chasing after the bubbles.  We showed them how to do it, but you could tell it was very foreign to them.  They looked so sad when we ran out of bubbles and the muzungus had to go back inside.

The pounds are just falling off of me, especially since I got sick.  My diet has been a small banana for breakfast, a small banana for lunch, and some rice for dinner.  That’s about all my stomach can handle.  Thankfully, I haven’t been hungry despite not eating.  It seems like every day a few more people get sick.

We love you guys!! Thanks for your love and support :)

Liz & Nate

The KOA is now luxury? What's happening to me?!

Hello!

(This was Monday)  I only have a second before we run off to Nagojje for a business class.  Just wanted to tell you about our little vacation this weekend.  We went on a class 5 river rafting trip down the Nile!  It was so awesome.  The scenery was incredible, and one of the kayakers that followed our raft to save us when we were thrown out was named Moses!

We got up early and went with several of the girls from our group.  After a few of them went bungee jumping, we hopped on our rafts.  We rafted for six hours through a series of about 10 rapids.  I knew from the beginning that it was going to be intense because they spend about 20 minutes teaching you what to do "when" the raft flipped and you were thrown out.  (Not "if" it flipped) One of the girls got scared in our group and went on the safety raft for the rest of the day. It was interesting because she had gone bungee jumping that morning.


The first couple of rapids were awesome.  Liz and I were in the front so we got the most intense action.  It was amazing that we could survive crashing into 10 foot walls of water and not get flipped.  By lunch time, we were ready for something a little more intense. (Liz speaking) We thought we would be fine with our 15 SPF but the sun is so hot and with the combination of our malaria meds we got pretty burnt. Nate got burnt pretty bad (he said it was the worst he's ever been burnt.) The top of his knees looked pretty painful.

The next rapid was called "Vengeance."  If the raft flips at the beginning, you are carried about 500 yards before it is even possible for a kayaker to pick you up.  They said that rarely happens.  Well it did.  Almost right after we started our raft flipped and we were thrown into the rapids.  There were several times where you were thrown under for 5-10 seconds before finding the surface.  It was a few minutes before I found Liz and the raft.  It was the best water slide I have ever done!  When a kayak finally found me and began taking me back to the raft, there was no sign of the other 7 girls.  I came back to find one of them had stayed with the raft...under the raft.  Her eyes were as big as anyone's I had ever seen.  She was in shock, and truly thought that she was going to die.  Still no sign of Liz though.  Slowly the other girls were brought to the raft.  Some happy, some near tears.  Then finally, I saw Liz, giggling and making small talk with her kayaker.  Then there was Kerri.  She is engaged and makes sure we don't forget how wonderful her dear Jeffrey is.  Like Breeann, she had quite the wild ride.  She spent the rest of the day telling how she had let go..given up on life.. and felt so horrible that Jeff would never see her again.  We still don't let her live it down.

 When we were all safe, Liz and I just talked about how we loved it.  Not all of the girls felt that way!

When the rafting was done, they fed us meat! Real meat!  Not eggplant, not peanuts, but real meat!  I ate like it was the last time I would ever have it again.  And it's true, haven't had any since.

Then they took us back to the campground.  It's basically like a KOA overlooking the Nile river where we paid for the rafting trip.  Included in the trip was a free night stay.  Even though it was a nasty public shower, it had HOT WATER.  I spent at least an hour in there.  Then we went to the bar and had pizza and said in a chair with a back on it, it even had a cushion.  Ah, life's luxuries.  It was a great weekend.

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It was the best of times...it was the worst of times

It was the best of times...it was the worst of times.  I think that will be the theme for our time in Africa.  Luckily the good tremendously trumps the bad.

It has been a very busy week for us with lots of great experiences.  As I think Liz mentioned, be began our series of business classes on Wednesday night.  We will be teaching three different groups of people.  One in Lugazi, the town where we live, and the other two are in small villages (Nagojje, 40 minutes away from Lugazi, and Naggalama about 2 hours from Lugazi)  That means six classes each week.
Lugazi is our most advanced group.  The people are very eager to learn anything that we can give them.  It is amazing to be giving advice to middle aged, and well-educated people that already own their own businesses.  We teach them in Pastor Francis church, a good friend of help who we are working on many projects with.  The church is probably 10x20 with concrete floor and walls.  The blackboard is spray painted on the wall.  As the sun went down, the only thing I could see of the students were there eyes and teeth!

I think Liz explained the other two villages very well.  Their english is not great but they are very eager to learn and they treat us like kings.  They will be the ones that are starting the reusable pad business.  Currently there are no products available to the young women.  They are forced to drop out of school and are often raped because men know that they have come of age.  This is not only a way for them to generate income, many live on wages of 500-1000 shillings a day (25-50 cents), but also provides an important social need.

The classes have been fun for me, but I can tell the most enjoyment will come from a project that I am working on by myself.  I asked Pastor Francis to introduce me to a few members of the community that already own their own businesses that might be open to consulting.  I have already met with Monday and Bruno, owners of a local furniture store.  They learned extremely basic book keeping from the businesses classes last year and were very excited to have some one on one training.  I introduced them to the concept of warranties, to help them increase their profit margins and assure customers of quality.  They had also never heard of a sale before.  It's amazing how common business practices in America are so foreign here.  They have been extremely receptive and it was fun to sit and ask question after question about their business, products, customers, etc.  I will be meeting with them again on Monday.  On Tuesday I am meeting with a man that has invented a way to turn garbage into fuel and wants to franchise it to farmers all over Uganda.  He is already profitable so it will be fun to try to take him to the next level.  I am hoping to get 3 more consulting clients.

This is what constitutes the best of times - we'll call this 10 am - 5 pm.  The worst of times makes up the rest of the day.  We are starving! Absolutely starving!!  It makes me wonder where our collective $75,000 went.  But no worries, Liz and I have taken that into our own hands.  Liz joined the food committee, while I joined the finance committee.  We also had private conversations with several of the members to complain individually about the situation.  Lets just say things have been running a little better lately...

Then there are the girls.  All 22 of them, well 21 minus Liz. 26 of any kind of people in 1200 square feet just doesn't work.  But 26 people, with 22 of them being spoiled, whiny 19 year old girls is worse than having Kony and his cronies hanging you by your toenails and having you devoured by a pack of angry gorillas. (True story)  But it is nice to be able to have our own bedroom and escape to reading Barbarians at the Gate.  In truth they really aren't all bad.

Well I think that's all for me.  We are going on an adventure tomorrow but I don't want to reveal what it is until we get home safely... Love you mom!

So far our highlights:

1.  Eating fried grasshopper - a local delicacy.  Tastes like potato chips.

2.  Cramming 16 people into a taxi designed for 8 and driving several hours
3.  Playing with the kids that chase us around saying "hey muzungu!"
4.  Eating about 600 calories a day and actually feeling full.


Well love you all.  Pictures are not working with the connection but we will somehow figure out a way.

Nate

Hello Everyone! We have had quite the week.  We are really excited about the things going on here in Uganda.  First of all I just have to say  that the people are so so kind and loving and welcoming to us.  This last weekend was a little hard starting out because we hadn't started on any projects.  If you can only imagine 22 girls that are mostly 19 and 20 screaming and being crazy you can imagine Nate asked me a few times what we were doing here.  We went and played soccer with some children in the village.  These kids schooled us barefoot, they were so good.  Church on Sunday was AMAZING! We went to a little branch in Jinja and they were so excited to see us, most of the volunteers went to Mukono for church.  The people were really inspirational and loving. There is a Sister who got baptized 3 weeks ago who is teaching Relief Society on Sunday. Isn't that amazing?

We have these committees that we volunteer to be on and since everyone in the house was starving I am on the food committee and Nate is on the finance committee so he can pad the budget so we can get more food.  It really isn't that we don't have a budget it's just that the we have no fridge and it's hard when you have to shop for 25 people.  It's getting to be a pretty big project.  We went to a small village called Nagojje that is about 40 min ride on a boda boda (motorcycle) This town has never had white people come into the village to do trainings.  There was a baby that was crying and Nate went to touch the baby and the baby started bawling.  The mother said sorry she has never seen a white person before.  The people are so humble and grateful for us coming to teach them business.  They started and ended the City council meeting with prayer.  This is when I first realized why WE needed to be there. After the meeting they brought us into their homes and gave me a necklace and fruit and were just so sweet and kind to us.  They asked us a million questions about America and what happens when we get too much sun.


We stared our first business class on Wednesday and it went really well. They had us sing our National anthem which was kind of funny. The people that came to the class in Lugazi were really smart.  Nate went to do consulting with a man who did the business classes last year.  He went to his furniture shop and is helping him to understand how to make a better profit and market the furniture.  Nate was saying that the guy thought it sounded like rocket science and that they were just so happy for the help.

Our Nagojje people who invited us in their home.

I went to one of the schools to observe the teachers and see if we can implement a teacher training.  Since I have been going with Nate on the business classes there hasn't been a lot of free time.  Yesterday we went to this small town past the middle of nowhere to meet the women that are starting the business of selling reusable pads.  They treated us like Kings and Queens.  They brought water to wash our hands and fed us fruit it was really so wonderful.  It takes us about 1 1/2 hours to get there and we go on these taxis but they stop every two seconds to pick up more people.  We get pretty cramped in there but we are able to make some great friends.  I decided they like you just because you are white, they wanted us to get them a visa to the U.S.


I will add pictures for sure, we just forgot the cord and the internet cafe is SUPER SLOW. But the children all love us and are so excited to see us. We are loving it and adjusting the the African lifestyle.  It is pretty crazy how many things we have that we take for granted.  We love you all!


Love, Liz & Nate

We made it to Lugazi!

We made it!  After two straight nights of red eyes,  we were extremely excited to find our little metal beds pushed together with a camping pad for a matress!  At least we got to lay down right?

Before hitting our pillows (KLM flight blanket and sweatshirt, respectively) we said to ourselves...what in the world are we doing here?  I think the thought crossed our minds again as we poured cold rain water over ourselves this morning for our bucket showers and ate pb & honey sandwiches for breakfast.  But it sure beat the three days prior of no shower and airline food.

I threw up a bad mango... I wasn't too happy

Nate just loves the Boda bodas

This morning we ventured out into Lugazi, which is a small town about 40-50 miles from Kampala, the capital.  You'd think it would be a quick trip, but the roads are not great and you have to dodge all the boda bodas weaving in and out of yours and the oncoming lanes.

Our house is probably the nicest in the entire town, and (for Susie's sake) is surrounded by a huge wall, padlocked, and watched by two guards 24 hours a day.  There are 25 people living in the house that is probably 1200 square feet.  Should be interesting when all 22 girls body clocks set to each other.

We realized we were in the right place when we started walking through town and seeing all the cute kids.  We are like celebrities here (because we are white) they call us Mzungu's as we walk by.  There were a group of about 5 kids that came up to me and Nate and have us high fives and knuckles which they call bonga.  We are super excited to go play soccer with them this afternoon.

We are way excited to be here an we'll make sure we update you at least weekly.  I think we'll just do it on the blog so we have it all in one place. We'll post pictures and stuff when we get it but until then, HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Love, Liz & Nate

We are Leaving for AFRICA!!

We are starting a blog to document our wild adventures this summer.  We are headed to Africa today.  We just got back from Mexico a few days ago and had a great time.  We couldn't be more excited to go to Uganda. We got an email from our country director the other day she said, "We got a great house, but it comes with a few quirks.  We moved in way before it was ready so we could experience all of them and learn to adjust before you all get here.  :)  It is a big 4 bedroom house (if you count the garage as a bedroom).  It has a big kitchen (this inspired a little dancing and singing when the cooks saw it), an indoor bathroom with a shower head, a semi-flushing toilet in the house, and 2 squat toilet and a shower room out back!  There is running water in the house, but water seems to be a precious commodity around here.  The city is not sending it through the pipes quite as often as we expected so we have multiple buckets and water carrying/pouring devices.  This will give us all a greater perspective on how the people live here."

 We thought it would be an adventure worth documenting.  I had this great idea when we started dating that we would write in a journal everything that happened.  Nate pretended to be excited but once we got married it didn't happen.  He agreed to write if it was on a computer so here we will start our documenting!