A plea from my little brothers in Africa

Davis and Yoseph are two of the sweetest 16 year olds I have every met.  They live in the same little compound that Melissa does in Lugazi (there are 4 small homes) and they always make sure she is taken care of.  We spent some fun times together letting them try American foods (crepes with Nutella, kit-kats, etc).  Davis is a pro at cutting pineapple and they would always offer to do the dishes.  On the last night I was there, Davis looked at the floor, asked us when the last time we had mopped it was, and said he would be by the next day to do it.  What 16 year old does that?  Seriously, they are two of the sweetest boys I've ever met.  Davis is also very musically talented.  He would often sing for us (many of the songs he wrote himself).  They both could not believe that neither of us were married, and decided they needed to make a video for each of us (original song included) to help us out.  So here's mine.  It's all I could do to keep from laughing as they did this. Enjoy :)

How did a rope swing do that?

Remember this adventure? Well, the rope swing was fun the first time, but not so much the second time.  I'm not really sure what happened.  All I know is when I came up, my fingers hurt so bad they almost felt numb.

Here I am making sure they are all still attached.  After about 10 minutes, the weird numbness went away, and then came the swelling/pain.  I thought my middle finger was probably broken, but within a couple days the swelling had significantly gone done, the bruising was minimal, and I had pretty good range of motion.  So we rafted the nile without problems and finished the amazing trip to Uganda.  But then I came home and my finger started getting worse. I was tired of flipping people off as I tried to baby that finger, so I decided to go to the doctor.  Here's what we found.

If you look at the top knuckle right side, you can see that the nob cracked almost all the way off but instead went to the left and cracked across the knuckle.  Who knew fingers could be so fragile?!
So now I have a sweet little splint and a pretty pathetic story.  Even a little girl I met the other day thinks so:

Her: What's your name?
Me: Kirsti.
Her: Sissy?
Me: Sure.
Her: What happened to your finger?
Me: I broke it jumping off a swing.
Her: You were winging on a wing?
Me: (chuckling) Ya.
Her: You shouldn't do that.  Those are for little kids, not big guys like you.

You're probably right sweet cheeks.  You're probably right.

Last Day in Uganda

For the last day, we decided to do a follow up nutrition lesson with the women.  We had them log what they ate the day before and see if it has improved since last week.  We then paired up the 8 that had been there for the original lesson and had them teach our 4 "students" (Betty had just come back from maternity leave, Cissy was back, and Pastor Josiah and Annette had come to say goodbye). After they taught, we brought out the vegetable soup Melissa and I had made and put it over rice for a goodbye lunch.  I'm really going to miss this place and these women.  It has been such and amazing experience!

Fatia

Nicole

The Garden

Hariet

Annette 

Pastor Francis

Christine and Fatia

The Amazing Musana Women

Rafting the Nile

Yesterday after Musana we went up to Jinja to do a little shopping, eat some amazing Indian food, and sleep up at Adrift so we could raft the Nile today.  It was such a blast!  We rafted about 14 miles of the river going through 8 rapids.  It's a level 5 stretch of the river.  There was one level 6 rapid so we had to get out and walk around it.  Such beautiful scenery and such fun people.  There was a couple from Australia on their honeymoon, a brother and sister from Colorado, and Enrique- the Chilean traveling the world for a year.

The group

The Adventure of Lake Bunyonyi

We decided to head to Lake Bunyonyi this weekend.  Melissa's friend Trystan's village is not too far from there and he had been wanting to show her that area for some time.  He said it would only be about 5 hours total from Lugazi to Lake Bunyonyi.  So we got on a matatu (taxi bus) and headed to Kampala to meet him there (about an hour and a half).  After a short boda boda ride and a trip to the squatty potty, we borded the bus and were on our way.

Bus ride to Mbarara

During this ride we had what we like to call our $4 safari.  The main road goes through a national park and we saw zebras at one point. 4 hours later we got to Mbarara. We ate some lunch and some nasty juice and then went to get the car Trystan had rented. At this point we were "so close" to the lake.  We had been driving at least an hour when Trystan announced he had a secret he had been keeping and would tell us as soon as we got to the next town (his village).  He said it would be safer that way.  So we pulled into the gas station and he said the breaks had stopped working 10 km into the the drive.  (I think he just meant they weren't working as well as they should because we were slowing down and stopping just fine). So we spent about an hour while they fixed the breaks.  At this point it was about 7:30 or 8:00 pm, it was dark, we were tired, and Trystan said the place at the lake was booked (we wanted to sleep at the lake that night) so we just went to a guest house there and planned to leave early in the morning to the lake since, again, we were "so close".

The guest house

We left around 7:00 and made a quick stop at Trystan's farm to meet his brother Common Man.  Yep, that's his name.  Then off to the Lake.  After 2 hours we got to Kabale and Trystan didn't like the sound of the car so we pulled into another gas station.  They told him it had been fixed very poorly and would need some work.  At this point Melissa and I were frustrated because the 5 hour journey had turned into 2 days.  So we left Trystan at the gas station, hopped on a bodaboda and went 20 minutes to the Lake.

bodaboda

What a beautiful sight!  It was definitely worth the journey.  Titus immediately became our guide so we hopped in a canoe and began paddling out Bushara island.

Trystan finally showed up so he hopped on a motor boat and headed out to meet us.  While we waited for our lunch on Bushara island, we went down and jumped off the rope swing a couple times.  Lake Bunyonyi is one of the few lakes free of bilharzia so it's safe to swim in.

With Titus and Trystan 

Midway through the swing

So fun

Our yummy lunch

The Bakiga used to leave unmarried pregnant girls on this small island with a lone tree - to die of hunger or while trying to swim to the mainland (swimming skills were rare). This was to educate the rest, to show them not to do the same. A man without cows to pay the bridewealth could go to the island and pick up a girl. The practice got abandoned in the first half of the 20th century. Although this practice has been abandoned, it is still possible to find women who were picked up from punishment island today. 

View of part of the lake from our hike

These kids starting following us on the hike

This little girls had made a doll out of dried banana leaves and a plastic bag dress

Some of the worst kwashiorkor I've seen since being here

We finished the hike, took a boat back to where we started and drove back to Kabale.  We left Trystan there to wait for the guy he rented the car from and got on a matatu back to Mbarara.  Our plan was get on a bus and try to make it to Masaka so we could go to church at the branch there on Sunday.  We called Elder and Sister Jones and they said we could stay at their place.  They were so kind.  We were told it would only be 4 hours to get from Kabale to Masaka so we thought we'd get in at 9, but it took 7 hours.  Poor Elder Jones picked us up at midnight from the gas station.  We went to church in the morning and it was such a fantastic branch.  Very strong and very united.  I love going to church here.  The Jone's cooked for us before we left and then it was off to Lugazi through Kampala........another 4 hours.  So it was a pretty crazy adventure but full of memories and definitely worth it.

Musana Song

The Musana song that the women wrote.  

Mzungu Jewelry and Seya

We started off the morning with a beautiful run down to the local cathedral.  I can't get over how green and lush it is here. Today at Musana Christine taught me how to make the basket weave earrings to see if they could make it a tourist attraction to come make jewelry with the women.  It was super fun.  I asked Tina if she'd hire me as the first Mzungu artist and she said of course.

We also taught about square-foot gardening.  We are hoping to plant a small garden at Musana on Monday so we can get more vegetables into the women's diets.  Some of them don't have any land where they live and those that do are worried about animals and thieves taking their vegetables.  Hopefully the Musana one works out.
This evening we traveled out to Seya to see Pastor Josiah and his wife Annette.  What a sweet, sweet family.  It was about a 20 minute bodaboda ride out to Seya through beautiful green sugar cane and rolling hills.  You could see for miles.  We had a great gospel discussion with Pastor and his wife.  They are so open to learning truth.  We basically taught the first lesson and also read the family proclamation with them.  Their 3 beautiful children were there as well. I just wanted to eat them up.  Here's a little taste of cute Jeremiah. He just started doing this and we asked his mom what he was doing.  She said he was dancing like Lane.

And his adorable sister Deborah teaching him English

It was pretty dark when we were leaving so Pastor took us back on his bodaboda.  It was such a beautiful night with frogs croaking and a cool breeze.  We ended the night by visiting a couple of the Musana women at their homes just down the street.  Many of them live in one room homes with up to 7 or 8 people crammed in.

Pizza Wednesday

We woke up to torrential rain today. So fun. And so muddy.  We didn't head over to Musana until about 10:00 because of it. I've officially become the display girl with organizing all the new jewelry in the store :).

Everyone holds hands here

We also went and printed off food logs so the women could start tracking what types of foods they are eating.  They are getting really excited about trying to incorporate all three categories into their meals.  For the health class yesterday we had them get into groups and talk about what makes it hard to eat growth and protection foods and to share ideas of how to do it better.  These women are so great.

Christine and baby Fatima

We then went to Mama Susan's to teach her how to make homemade pizza.  We are pretty sure it was Lugazi's first pizza ever.  At Musana, they are encouraging each woman to come up with a business idea and the goal is to help each one start this business. Musana will just be a stepping stone for them and then when they are on their feet with their own business, the can bring someone new on.  So Susan has a dream of starting a bakery.  They built a brick oven and have a good space on the side of the house where they really could open a bakery.

Nutrition Day

Today reminded me so much of my mission.  To be honest, most days feel like that.  The dirt is the beautiful, rich red dirt just like Misiones, Argentina.  There is lush greenness everywhere.  It rains most days.  The people are so loving.  They yell "Mzungu"(white-person) at us (in a loving way).  Melissa lives in a cute little neighborhood with dirt roads. The kids yell "Melissa" all the way up and down the street as we walk by.  It is so sweet.

We started the day by making crepes for the boys because Yoseph was leaving for a month to go work on the island on the lake.  Love those boys.  They are my new Uganda brothers.  

At Musana today we started the first nutrition lesson.  Tina began and then interpreted what I said so that nothing would be misunderstood.  Most of the women speak English pretty well.  These women are so bright.  They had wonderful questions.  We broke all food into 3 categories-energy, growth, and protection.  Most people here eat lots of starches to be full (energy group), but growth (protein) is more expensive, and protection (vitamins and minerals) aren't commonly eating.  But we are going to change all of that :).

After Musana we went to the market to get seeds for the garden we are going to make behind to shop.  We also got a ton of vegetables to make some soup.  This may not look appetizing, but it was DELICIOUS!