First off, I wanna say sorry for the fact that all the
pictures are out of order. I uploaded pictures from both of our cameras, and
didn’t take the time to put them in chronological order.
Then I’ll start with several pieces of good news. They found
our bags (we weren’t that concerned because all the expensive stuff we carried
with us, but I’m glad I can now spend money on buying things I want, not just
clothes to get by) and we talked to Phillip (the guy who runs the clinic). It was super exciting to talk to him and it
sounds like there is a lot of cool stuff we can do here. He just got back from
visiting home (England) so said he needed a week to get stuff organized and
then he’s going to put us to work. It sounds like we’ll be doing checkups on
the kids who come in… recording weight, height, seeing if they have any
symptoms of HIV/AIDS etc. He also said he’s going to send us into the field and
the surrounding villages to check out kids who don’t have access to good
medical care. Jamie and I are looking forward to getting started.
So for this week we’re going to be working at the orphanage,
and then figure out our long-term schedule after things get figured out at the
clinic. We haven’t been to the orphanage yet, but Maggie’s going to take us
there tomorrow morning.
Today we went to the church Maggie goes to (it’s not a
typical Ugandan church, the pastor is Canadian and about 50% of the
congregation is Ugandan) and spent the day walking around, kinda looking for
clothes to buy (this is before we found out about our bags). We both enjoy just
looking around and experiencing what life is like here. I posted some picture
of what the roads look like; hardly any of them are paved, but they’re not
dusty. It’s not super hot here, which is appreciated, and there always seems to
be a wind blowing. So much so that in church today I looked around to see where
the fans were (the building has all open windows). The people here seem to be
super friendly, and I haven’t experienced the looks/attitude my friends and I
got in Mexico from the local men. It makes things much more comfortable when we’re
walking around.
One of the things I’ve noticed while walking around is the
pure number of kids. They’re all running around mostly unsupervised, but as far
as I can tell they are more in control of themselves than most American kids.
They’ve had to grow up earlier, I’m sure. It would make being a nanny easier,
but I’m not sure that’s a trade I would make. All the children are very
friendly, and a lot of them call out greetings to us as we pass. Both Jamie and
I have had to practice waving with a flat hand, though, because the normal “kid”
wave (bringing your fingertips down to your palm) means “come here.” That is
honestly one of the things we’ve had the most trouble with, believe it or not.
Nights here are pretty chill. It gets dark at 7 (hello
equator) so I’m going to get used to going to bed early. Might as well make the
most of the 12 hours of sun… We’ll be happy when our bags come tomorrow because
they have all of our scrapbook pictures in them. Then we can start scrapbooking
while watching a movie or something.
Ok I'm going to call it a night. Hope everybody has a great weekend!
