Fluffy Bunny: aka The Bad Place

Ok the end of last week was awesome and so was the weekend! Here is another quick update! Beginning with Friday. I began the day by going with Ashley and the Education Committee to go and promote this writing contest that they are doing throughout the Lugazi and Mucono Districts. We went to this all girls school with Wilson and it was quite the experience. It was by far the richest school I have seen since being here in Uganda and they even had an assembly room with a stage! Anyways, we didn't really have to say much because Wilson took the reigns on this one, but we did have to stand up and introduce oureselves. Now apparently it is tradition for the team to announce their African name with their real name and so since I didn't have one, Wilson took the liberty of giving me one! He said he had to think long and hard about it so that it would be a good name. So not going to lie, I was expecting something really meaningful! Some other members on our team have names that mean, "someone important" or "rainbow" etc. ha ha then he said, I got it! Birungi! I found out it means, "good". ha ha so yay I have a Ugandan name! But it was hilarious because all the students bust up laughing when you tell them your name! After we finished, Ashley, Ally, Sandra and I went to a few of the churches that are going to help us find children for the Ability Kids choir. We went and brought them our letters and even though we thought we were prepared, we found out we weren't. We were bombarded with questions we couldn't answer and realized we had a lot of work to do. It was kind of hard to take the news since we were so excited about it, but it was a learning experience. Two of the churches however asked us if we could come and announce the choir in their church meetings. . . . a tad bit out of my comfort zone again, but we agreed. That night, most of our team began preparing to go river rafting down the Nile. I wasn't planning on going until a few weeks later, but at the last minute, I decided to just go!
So we woke up bright and early and the bus came and picked us up! Once we got to our destination, this Australian man named Sunny came on the bus and began briefing us on the adventure. I wasn't really too nervous about it until they began having us fill out liability forms and everything! I also didn't really know much about river rafting before this, but they told us that when classifying rapids it goes from 1-6. 1 being calm water and 6 being if you take a raft down it, you will be severely injured if you even come out at all. But they reassured us that they would just take us up to class 5 rapids. Then we loaded up in our rafts with our helmets and life jackets and we were off! They told us we needed to practice flipping the boat so we would know what to do WHEN it happened out in the rapids. Our guide reassured me that I wouldn't get stuck under the raft if it flipped, but if I did it would be in an air pocket so I could get out just fine! So we flipped and yes I got stuck under and no it was not in an air pocket so I seriously thought I was going to die drowning! So after that experience I became terrified about falling out of the raft which made the rest of my experience a little more scary!
Well luckily all the rapids were amazing ( until the last one, but I'll get to that in a minute)! We went right through them and they were awesome! We didn't flip or anything! The only trouble we ran into was when we were going over a waterfall, we got stuck on a rock and had to bounce off! After each rapid there was about 15 minutes of flat water to just relax and enjoy the incredible scenery! As we neared the final rapid, rumors started coming around of a place in the rapid called The Bad Place. Apparently it is impossible to go through it without flipping so of course that is where my team wanted to go! Our guide knew that I was scared so he was like, I'll change the name to Fluffy Bunny. . . didn't help! So sort of against my will we came face to face with The Bad Place. All I really remember about it was paddling, hearing our guide scream get down and then flying! After that I was just rolling around in the water gasping for air until a kayak came and rescued me! I thought I had a rough time, but after talking with my team I was a lucky one! Many members on my team got sucked down in the water and said they felt their lungs heaving from holding their breathe so long! So moral of the story, I am very glad that I had the experience of getting to know the Nile on a personal level (since I swallowed about half of it) but I don't think I will EVER do it again.
After that some members of our team went bungee jumping and out to dinner, and were going to spend the night in Jinja, but Ashley and I had to head back because we had to visit the churches with Sandra the next day.
I haven't ever been to another denominations church on a Sunday before, but I loved the experience! We first went to Mass at the Cathedral! I imagine that it was very similar to Mass in the USA, but the choir was complete with African drums and everything! It was awesome! Then we went up, gave our announcement and after the meeting headed over to the Lugazi House of Miracles! It was a completely different experience there! We could hear singing and 80's style music booming as we walked there! It was basically a big party in there! And it was interesting because there were actually a group of Bzungu there from Oregon. They were doctors and Dentists hear for the week to treat people in the area! The pastor there was awesome and so willing to help us. He even offered his church as a place for us to practice.
That night the second wave of volunteers came. It was a rather bitter sweet experience because it was so excited to see everyone and have more man power for our projects, but it means that my experience in Uganda is half over! I can't believe how fast time is going! I wish it would slow down! But it did help me realize a little better, that we can't lose steam with our projects. We have so little time here and so much work to do!
Monday I didn't have any set plans in the morning so I tagged a long with a few people who were going to the Ssanyou school because we are wanting to build two classrooms for students with disablities and so Nicole is writing an article to send back to Canada to raise some money. So Pastor Francis and Sister Ssanyou who own the school told us the story of the school. It was such a touching story! They have worked so hard and have had to have faith to make it through their struggles with it. The schools here require students to pay school fees to attend and then additional fees if they want to have food at school. If they can't pay the fees they can't come or can't eat! However, at the Ssanyou school, they only have about half of their students who are able to pay school fees and they give each child porridge every day regardless of wether they pay or not. So needless to say, they are very behind in paying the teachers and other fees. It is amazing though because the teachers don't quite even though they are currently receiving about 30,000 shilling a month (which is about $15) because they know Pastor Francis and Sister Ssanyou are honestly trying their best to provide a good education for the students and pay their fees.
We also talked with a girl named Angel. She is an orphan now and she was telling us all her dreams of the future. How she wants to be a journalist! But she doesn't know if she can continue her education because once she leaves the Ssanyou school, she will be at a school that won't allow her to just not pay school fees. It was such a touching moment and I think all the experiences so far had just built up so I just lost it! Then the rest of our volunteers there lost it too and it was such an emotional experience! It's just sad to think back to all the times I would have rather been any where at school when kids here would do anything to be in school! Then we went out and played with the kids during their break! Then I went to teacher training again, which was awesome! We did all these activities that were hilarious! The teachers are great! Then we headed over to Hope Children's Home and hung out with the kids there for a little while! I love going there! I don't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but there is a kid there named Mark and he is so adorable! He is five and an orphan. If I could, I would honestly adopt him! Anyways, we played games with them and I talked with a girl named Florence. She was telling me her story and how she ended up at Hope. I love it when the kids open up to tell you their story, but it is hard to hear at the same time because they are always sad. But she loves to sing and so she taught me a song in Luganda!
Which brings me to today, Tuesday! This morning we met with some people from the Cathedral who are interested in either joining a support group for people with disabilities or joining our children's choir. A man named Frances came and told us his story. He was orphaned when he was very young and since then his siblings haven't really helped him. We told him about the business classes and income generating projects we have and he seemed excited to learn to support himself. We also met with a lady named Rose who has a some who lost a leg and has severe epilepsy. We were asking her questions and she said her son was so excited to sing! All the hard work we have done finally felt like it was worth it, even though we just met two people!
Sorry this was so long! I'll end now! O and just something funny, everytime I tell people my name is Kate since they can't pronouce katelynn, they kind of laugh. Don't even worry that k-a-t-e in Luganda means "little cow". They told me that suits me. . . whatever that is supposed to mean! ha ha I love it!