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)