homesick

It’s been a packed few days so I haven’t been able to blog.

Wednesday morning nine of the people from the house woke up early and boda’d over to the taxi park. We piled into another crazy taxi, along with about 12 other people, and a few chickens. I get super motion sick and a little claustrophobic back home, so these rides are typically not very pleasant. I was up against the window, which has a bar running across it. Every bump we hit, which is about every 3 feet (not exaggerating), my arm would ram into the bar. It was painful! Actually it’s still painful because of the bruise it left. I tried to kind of zone out by listening to my iPod, little did I know that because I had plugged it into my new computer, I had erased nearly all my music. I was left with maroon 4, which helped, and Justin Bieber and the song call me maybe. Let me tell you that I am by no means a Bieber hater, but I also do not have Bieber fever, and that ride seemed just a little longer when every other song was JB.

When we arrived to Bududa, we went on a short walk through the village and dropped our stuff off at David Zalles’ House. He and his wife were so welcoming and excited to have us. In his house, David runs a nursery school for the children in the village, there is not enough room, but he makes do with what he has in order to help the children. We walked down to a field where there stood a half constructed building made of tree stumps and long branches and an iron roof. We got to work right away by taking huge balls of mud and filling in the spaces between the branches, basically building the walls and insolation for the school. We were filthy, but playing with mud reminds you of childhood and is actually super fun. However, it quickly becomes pretty exhausting! Building a school is a lot of work, who would have thought? Haha After working for six hours it began to rain and we couldn’t work anymore because the pile we were getting mud from was getting too wet and becoming a puddle. We went back to David’s house and bathed, sort of. We more rinsed the dirt off with a little bit of soap. I was still pretty gross, but it felt good to get some of the mud off. They offered us some hot tea made with mild straight from the cow, not for me haha. But we went into the kitchen and I heard a crunch and a slurp.  I looked down and this little girl was chowing down on a chicken foot, claws and all. It was soooo disgusting. We were all dry heaving but trying to pull it together out of respect.

We played card games for a few hours and David’s son Dezi even taught us how to play a popular Ugandan card game. It was a lot like Uno, but with a few extra rules. We were so tired but had to stay awake for dinner, which wasn’t until 9:30 at night! It was a struggle to stay awake but it was worth it in the end. Everyone gathered in the living room for dinner and David gave a speech which melted my heart. The best part was he told us it was his 69^th birthday that day and that it was his best birthday ever because HELP International had started building him his school, which he has been dreaming of for many years. It was touching and rewarding to see how much of an effect our work was having. If not for HELP’s fundraising efforts, David would not have had the money to build the school for many more years, if ever. He is a very cool man, and very different from many of the other Africans I have met here. He is very into giving everyone a good education as a foundation for life. In fact, David has 7 children, and all but one have gone the University. That is pretty much unheard of in Uganda. The one that will not go to University has Down’s syndrome, and the fat that David and his wife, Elizabeth, still take care of him is also pretty unprecedented. Most people with mental disabilities get ignored and are outcasts in society here. Even more amazing, they have taken in a child they found on the streets who has special needs because his family didn’t want him.

The next day I wasn’t feeling very well, I was just kind of sleepy but I helped build the school from 9 til about 2. I then went back on another exciting taxi adventure with my maroon 5 and Justin Bieber. I slept most of that day and nearly all of Friday. I thought I was feeling better so we headed to Jinja, a town 2 hours away, for a little weekend trip to raft the Nile River. When we arrived at our Hotel, called Adrift, we were shown to our room which was dorm style with bunk beds. They had a little outdoor bar and restaurant overlooking the Nile, it was stunningly beautiful. We ordered some American food, which we waited over and hour and a half for, but it was pretty worth it. I had a pizza that was absolutely delicious.

The next morning we got up and climbed up a big tower over the Nile where we were going to Bungee Jump. I was super excited but still feeling kind of weak. I became very shaky and nauseated, and I thought I was going to pass out. At the time I thought I was just too nervous to jump and I ended up chickening out. I was super disappointed in myself. But then we got in the car to drive to rafting and the shaky and nauseated feeling was not subsiding. We got to the shore of the river and I was noticeably shaking and my friend said I had become very pale. Soon after that I began throwing up and we decided not to go rafting. After a few hours of throwing up and shaking we decided to go to the hospital, which was one of the sketchiest places I have ever been. I felt like I was in a horror film. I tested positive for Malaria, when the doctor told me I immediately had to hold back tears. It is hard enough to be sick, but especially when you are thousands of miles from home. I started laughing to keep the tears back, how could this be happening. I have been a little homesick recently but suddenly I felt like I needed to be home. I received an injection for the Malaria and was given two more to take back to Mbale with me. I am back in Mbale now and still pretty miserable. I haven’t been able to keep anything down, including water. I have a fever and a persistent headache and I am so sleepy. I hope I start feeling better soon so I can enjoy my last two weeks in Africa.