Omubisi

Okay. Geez. It has been a crazy two days. Every day here is crazy! I love it. So I have all of these things written down and I hope I can get through all of them. This is kind of my journal for the next four months too so I hope this works. I LOVE not having an alarm clock. My alarm clock is the rooster that lives next door. I LOVE not looking at my watch all of the time. I LOVE people being late to meetings and not showing up. I thought I wouldn't be able to stand it, but it is the best blessed thing that has ever happened to me. Everyone is SO relaxed here and it makes everyone have so much less stress and everyone is so happy.
An update on my "honey" situation: So....I dumped him. Hahahahha. We had a divorce and I gave his ring to Lacie. Then he was mad at me for a while for giving his ring away, but we just barely made up and we are friends. But HIS friend Julius Caesar. Did I talk about him last time? I don't remember. He was over meeting us and Ivan got mad at him for talking to me. Anyways, he brought me flowers yesterday. I don't understand. And these are the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. He picked them, and formed this beautiful bouquet with everything from scratch, he made a kind of wrap thing with some cardboard and some banana fibers to tie it all together. And the smell. My friends, I have never smelt anything more beautiful in my entire life. I'm not even joking one tiny bit. Bonnie and Jess LeBaron, remember how when we went to the stores and I would smell that special stuff of Abraham's and wanted to die? It is that times one bajillion million. Answer me this. How come I can hardly get a DATE in America, but here, I could basically marry any man I want? I can tell you this, I have never had more self confidence in my whole entire life. Haha. And yesterday we were walking by a bunch of men ...they all own "boda boda's" which are basically little motorcycles. They own these and they sit on corners and wait for someone to ask them for a ride somewhere (I went on my first one yesterday and it was SO fun but a little scary). Anyways, so this guy said hello to me and I reach out to "shake" his hand. When they shake hands, they don't really shake, they just kind of hold your hand, so this guy holds my hand for a minute, then keeps holding on...I let go but he starts following me and he says "No! But I love you!" So one of the guys in my group, Ryan, says "Omubisi" which means "my honey" or "my sweetheart" kind of claiming me. Hahaha it was so funny. So the guy finally backed off after a few minutes. Ryan was like "what is with you and these Ugandan men?" And everyone is teasing me about "dating the locals." I swear I am just friendly to them....I'm just trying to be kind, but whatever.
So...our water came on yesterday! Hallelujah! But before that, I had to take a shower. I felt completely disgusting. Like, sorry for the details kids, but you clean your arms, legs, face, hair, etc. But you don't clean where your swimsuit covers.....your "necessaries" as we like to call them. So we came up with a shower method for this particular problem. You put soap where is needed, then one stands in the front with a bucket of water, one stands in the back with the same. ONe, two, three. Then there's a bunch of screaming cause the two buckets of water are FREEZING!! Then you crab walk under the rain-water faucet to rinse the rest off. It was really a wonderful feeling to be totally clean. Well....for about 30 seconds.
So we were coming up with a team mission statement yesterday and a guy in my group named Andrew suggested the phrase "self discovery," so I told my group that we needed to have a firm ending, and I came up with "...while on the road to self discovery." Andrew supported me in this and we now put that at the end of every sentence basically. It was hilarious. I'm sure no one else thinks this is funny...but I am peeing my pants just thinking about it so I want to remember it.
Yesterday we went to an AIDS/HIV clinic and oh my goodness. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen. There are dozens of people just sitting there waiting to hear their fate. As I walked in and saw all of these beautiful people...My eyes started to water. It's incredible the power something like that can have on your life. Most people become completely unmotivated and think their is no reason nor any way to live. There was this one woman waiting with her not-even 3 year old girl. The little girl was in this cute white dress and she was staring at me, so I went up to touch her hand. She just grabbed it and held it. My friend got mad at me and was like "don't do that! You'll get some disease!" But I just wanted to pick her up and hold her and give her everything I have. Ah! It's hard seeing these things cause I just want to give them everything. So I just sat with her and held her hand for a while. The most angelic little girl.
Andrew Sitati. I want you to know that half of the men here look like you. I love it. I always want to run up and hug them.
The other day in the middle of the market there were these drums playing and lots of music. I started dancing and EVERYONE was laughing and pointing. Then they made me go in the middle and tried to get me to play the drums. Funny. OH and yesterday I was sitting outside of the SILDA internet cafe and some lady comes up just being really friendly. I shook her hand and she started to pull MY RING OFF. She was crazy. So I was laughing at her trying to ask us for money and every time she would do this insane crazy laugh. As we were walking away, we were like "ah yeah man that was the craziest person in all of Uganda!" And this MAN jumps out of a dumpster making these goat noises and laughing hysterically. So funny.
Well, I need to go and get some lunch now before it is too late. But I love it here. I love the people. i know that we came here to try and do everything we can to improve their way of life. But I don't think I can do anything for them. i know that I can help their education a little bit and maybe build them a stove or two or eight or twenty to help cut their costs, but whatever I do here will NEVER be enough to make up for what they have done for me. I have been here for less than a week and I have learned more than I have in my entire life. These people are incredible. They are so Christ-like and know the right way to live. I love Uganda and everyone here! Even the crazy ring stealer and the psycho dumpster man!

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Love Will Save The Day
Dani Israelsen