Projects so far. . . . .

It has been a busy week setting up appointments with partner organizations and starting to get our projects figures out and everything! For the public health commitee our main projects for the next few months are going to be the eye camp and the HIV/AIDS extravaganza, but since those aren't until the end of June and July, we have been working on a few small things until them. On Monday, Emanual invited us to go to an HIV/AIDS screening. We didn't really know what we were going to be doing, but we went with the intention to just observe what was going on. Well. . . he had slightly different plans. When we got there, he took us to the room where there were about 40 college students waiting for us. He got out the equipement and began telling us about the test they did. There is a strip of paper and when you put a few drops of blood on the tip and wait, lines will appear. If there is just one line, the person is negative, but if there are two, someone's life is about to change forever. After he explained it all he was about to hand us needles. . . needless to say we panicked!!! We explained to him that we didn't have permission from our organization to work with needles, and he was like, "well I'm giving you permission." We finally convinced him that unfortunately we needed to talk to head office before we did that so he settled for us to assist him in everything else but the actually pricking.
My whole life I have known that HIV/AIDS is a serious disease, but I don't think it hit me how much it impacts people who actually deal with the reality of contracting it. The tension in the room was so so great and when people came to me, I would take down their names and I just felt so bad for them seeing them under so much mental stress. Once everyon had been tested, we waiting around for the results. The room was completely silent and we felt so uncomfortable. . . yet we were about to get even more so. Luckily, everyone we tested was negative. Emanual said that he had only had 6 people test positive since he has been testing at the University, yet you could tell he was very dissapointed because he knew that the reason everyone was so worried was because they had been pariticipating in risky behaviors that put them at risk. So rather than just tell everyone they were negative, he gave each person an individual counseling session on how to keep themselves HIV/AIDS free. He let us sit in and listen and after he had done a few counseling sessions, he was like, now Kate (that is what they call me since that can't say katelynn) is going to give you a lesson and reveal your results. ummm. . . not only did I only know a minimal amount about the virus I had someone absolutely terrified for their life looking to me for advice! I didn't do so great at first, but it was an incredible experience! Very eye opening!
After the screening, Emanuel invited us over to his house to have a coke! It was really good to try and get the mood a little lighter after that experience! We went over and just talked with him for a little bit and he was telling us that he hopes to come to the USA to go to medical school. He is incredibly smart and I hope he gets the opportunity because he would do awesome and I know that he could do so much good here! But he also told us that that morning he had tested two people that were HIV/AIDS positive. He said it just wears him down when he has to reveal that kind of news to someone. We are planning on helping him with more screening and testing and I hope that I never have to reveal that kind of news to anyone!
I also had my first boda-boda ride! FOr those of you that don't know, that is just a motorcycle basically! It is tradition that girls ride sitting side-ways since they are all wearing skirts, but I wasn't about to do that. . . I was already a little nervous! ha ha so I full on climbed on boy style and told them to go really slow and held on for my life!! I'm sure that the driver was just dying laughing and that everyone we passed by did the same but I felt much safer that way!
Yesterday, we were really excited because we were going to meet the mayor! however, time/meetings in Uganda, are not taken quite like they are in America. It is very normal to 1. be a few hours late or 2. not show up! So he didn't show up! But we finally just met with a lady named Peggy instead after a few no shows!
We are also getting ready to build a stove at a school next week. Me and another volunteer went and visited the school to try and get things ready. It was a boarding school and I found out that out of 200 kids staying there, 125 of them only get porridge in the morning and that is all they eat for the rest of the day! I just can't imagine how hungry they must be and how hard it must be to learn with so little food with hardly any nutrition. THe porridge here is called poscho and it is basically a paste made from corn flour stuff and water. We had it and it really isn't that good and is basically just meant to act as something to fill their stomachs since it is soooo heavy. We are thinking of building gardens at these schools to help the kids learn how to have a garden, practice math, provide better nutrition, and a little extra income.