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