Too Much

I discovered that the "too much" phrase isn't just something that Andrew, Zig, and Josh say all of the time. EVERYONE in Africa says it all the time haha. ALso, if you ask them a question, like, "can we come on thursday at 2pm?" They won't say yes or no, they will say, "it is okay." I never understand that....Anyways. MY HAIR IS TURNING BROWN. Like, no joke. So...a few days before Africa, I go to the hair place and say, "put some more blonde highlights in," right? Yeah. Then it turned out to be PLATINUM BLONDE and I thought to myself, "what the heck?" But THEN I come here and my hair is turning darker than it has been in the past like...long time. It's so random. I'm wondering if it's something in the water or something. Oh and did I tell everyone that I went 4 days without showering? YEAH BABY! Haha. It'll be so weird to someday get in a shower that I can stand up in and to pee while sitting down.
I love Peanut Butter. I am addicted. They actually have good peanut butter here and I love it. Just a side note.
So...I am feeling so much better. I'm really anxious to talk to my family tonight, but other than that, I'm not very homesick or sick....I still have to use the bathroom a lot in an uncomfortable way, but other than that, I feel GREAT! I think the main thing that changed it is the following experience...
I think it was Wednesday afternoon when I went with Andrew L (we have two Andrews. Andrew L is the one who is in the band with me and Andrew H is on the BYU Rugby team...just FYI) to this Youth Outreach office. It's an organization, kind of like Dan Blake's...but it is run completely by Young people, 20 and under. These are all University students from the surrounding area...Lugazi, Jinja, Mukono, even Kampala. They go to different schools and teach about AIDS/HIV and hygiene, a balanced diet, and things like that. Then they get young people involved in Community Service, because NO ONE really does that here. They don't make any money off of it, these guys just wanna change Uganda and make it a better place. They sometimes teach kids about Aids or Drug Abuse or something like that and then play Futbol with them to reward them for coming....the kids here LOVE soccer. So Andrew is big into soccer and brought a TON of soccer stuff. He donated every bit of it to them and we're starting a soccer league type thing that will spread awareness of Aids and the sort. I went with Andrew to their office to give this stuff to them. They were so grateful, everyone was near tears. "Too Much! It is too much! You do too much for the people here and they are so grateful! You will see their faces, Andrew and Dani, they will be so happy!" On and on and on. It was so awesome. Wilson is the President and he is SUCH a sweetheart. The other guys are Godfrey, Luta(super goofy he is so funny--I'm going with him to a MDT performance today at 5pm), Robert, Barack(yes, his name is barack and he gets a lot of praise for it), and so many others. THey are mostly guys. But every single one of these guys want to just change the world, and make it a better place. Their careers, everything. Everything they are doing in their lives is for the good of Uganda, for no praise at all. "He is a social worker, I am an accountant, we will work with the poor and the needy. We do not care if we live in a one room house, like this office. As long as what we are doing is spreading and helping the youth, we will be happy." They are incredible. This gave me a whole new....renewal I guess. It made me remember why I am here. Being homesick and missing American food is such a dumb thing. What's the point? Of course it'll happen, but I just gotta get over it. It's not doing anyone any good. There's so much to do here and so many people that I still want to help and who will still teach me. I am so excited for these next few months!
I still have a few minutes so I'm just going to tell you a few funny things about Uganda and what it's like here. Everyone is so welcoming. Whenever you walk into a building or even a little shack, people will say "You are most welcome here." They are so nice and make you feel so comfortable. There is this place where we always go to get lunch. It is with Nixon(the rolex man) who makes us each a rolex. It is 700 Shillings and it is basically a tortilla with a layer of omelet (like eggs and tomatoes and onions) all rolled together. The tortilla is called a chipote (don't know spelling) but so much better than the ones in America. Everywhere I go, men seem to call to me. There's about 3 or 4 places in town wehre all of the Boda drivers gather. They all sit there and wait for someone to ask for a ride on a boda. Whenever I pass by, I always get some weird comments, whether in Luganda or English...it's always weird. Today the guy just yelled, "I love you so much!" Haha uh...thanks?? So that's entertaining...
The smells in Uganda are horrid. Walking through the market is death. Seriously, death. They have all the fruit stands and stuff, but then they have fish. It just looks like they picked up the fish and let it dry for 3 months and then set it out for you to eat. It is disgusting and smells like........death. Yep, that's the only way to describe it. And I'm sure eveyrone who has been to a 3rd world country has seen the meat places....the stands of meat. Let me describe this to you. One day, Shareaf goes out and kills a cow, he skins it, takes it to town and sits it on a table. For about 3 weeks. SIIIIIIIIIIIICK. I hope you can all imagine me whining that sick, "SIIIIIIIIIIICK!"
People here are late to everything. For example, yesterday we had a teacher training and there were supposed to be 8 teachers. It was supposed to start at 2...the first teacher go there about a quarter after and finally by 2:30, we had to start with 2 teachers. Then 2 more came throughout ...and the other four probably showed up 2 hours later. Haha, it's always a suprise whether things will actually happen or not. That's one thing I've learned here. Development is a slow-moving thing. You have to have SO much patience. You just HAVE to be able to go with the flow, otherwise, it will never ever happen. That's one thing I suck at. Going with the flow. But I'm learning. And I'm really enjoying it too.
Well, time to go again. I hope you are all doing well. Again, thank you EVERYONE for your sweet notes of encouragement and your prayers. I appreciate it more than you know. Things have been good. We've had a few scary moments...first with everyone getting sick, another girl needs back surgery and there's no good medicine here, one boy just got malaria, and two girls got beat by drunkards with banana tree branches last night after a political election...yes these are all people in my group. Haha...but everyone is okay. And happy. And working hard and doing our best to get as much done as we possibly can in the few short months that we are here. I LOVE UGANDA. As do I love all of you!
Love,
Me.