Ahh it's just one of those days

I am going to vent in this blog post so I apologize in advance if I hover on certain topics and go on and on. It’s just the nature of the beast people.

So this weekend Tony and I had a great time white water rafting for the first time. We were with 6 other Peace Corps Volunteers and we got to be tourists! We dressed in whatever clothing we wanted to wear, we swore, and we drank beer without wondering who’s watching from our village. It was great!

Then Sunday morning Tony got a punch in the gut from bacterial dysentery. You know the bacteria that find their way into your GI tract. You can’t eat or drink anything without it coming back up and simultaneously things are rapidly coming out of your body. Tony had a milder version of this a few months ago so it wasn’t too new to us but this time it advanced rapidly. (As a side note, Tony and I have both had giardia twice - the joys of a Peace Corps Volunteer and their health!)

So Sunday night Peace Corps drove to the hotel (we reserved for Tony’s comfort) in Jinja to bring us to the hospital in Kampala. It was about a 1 1/2 hour drive. Once we got there we learned that Tony was very dehydrated, exhausted, and had a slight temperature. Two and a half liters of IV fluids and a good night sleep later Tony was released from the hospital to recover under Peace Corps care.

Now there is a retired nurse in Kampala named Betsy. She has to be the sweetest woman I have met in country and seems to be Peace Corps adopted grandmother. After the afternoon at the Peace Corps office where Tony had a check-up we went to stay with Betsy until Wednesday.

Here is where I am going to dwell on food. She served us such great food! We ate omelets, chicken noodle soup, homemade macaroni and cheese, chicken Without Bones, fresh peas, fruit plates, toast, REAL BUTTER, steamed tilapia fish Without Bones, and salads with Real Lettuce! She was very conscious of how to get Tony back on track. Now I stress without bones because here in Uganda bones are pretty much required when you serve meat. So when you order meat at a local restaurant you often been bones that have been ruthlessly butchered so you have fragments you need to watch out for. Not fun but doable.

Also Betsy had a wonderful home! Screens on the windows, fans, and hot water showers! Can you imagine? We were able to take continuous hot water showers, not ration it out with our camp bag shower! It was glorious! Plus, Betsy has hosted many Peace Corps Volunteers over the years and even has a family t-shirt that Tony got to wear as PJs. It says Fairy Tales and has a magic wand on it. Precious.

So here is how today (as well as yesterday) has become one of those days…

Wednesday we traveled back to Bukedea. We left our wonderful Peace Corps SUV vehicle with air conditioning and working shocks for a large public bus. This bus was supposed to be Express stopping only once for food, once for a bathroom break, and in two major towns…Instead we stopped two times for food, didn’t stop for a bathroom break, and stopped at about 10 different towns…Oh Uganda.

The previous night I got a call from Dennis my solar lamp guy. Over the past 6 weeks I have been working with him, pretty much holding his hand, and my school teachers to line-up solar lamps for the teachers. We had orders all set and my teachers had money but Dennis was delayed by another guy in Kampala who had to pick-up the lamps. He was delayed two weeks and needless to say my teachers found other uses for the money and choose to wait until next month to buy them. However! When Dennis called me he insisted on meeting me at school Wednesday.

So when Tony and I arrived in Bukedea it was 4pm. Dennis had already called me 4 times that day to ask me where I was. By the time I got to school at 4:30 I was tired, sweaty, gross, and completely aware that no teacher would be at school because the day ended at 4:30. Oh, and that day my school had a blood drive so normal classes were canceled anyway. Dennis seemed upset even though I warned him. He said he had been waiting for me all day…Well my teachers have been waiting two weeks for him…

After seeing Dennis off, I headed home. Thankfully before Tony and I left for rafting we did all our laundry and stocked up on water. Sadly that didn’t make up for the realization that “oh gosh we have to make our own dinner tonight and clean up afterwards.” About 10 minutes into making our dinner we also realized we didn’t have a fan that night either…Sweaty, gross, too lazy to shower, and no fan. Back to our reality.

This morning I had a dual conversation with myself involving “why am I here/I miss home” and “I don’t want to leave.”

Our life here is tough. If anything it is just plain annoying. We have to:
- Ration our water
- Wash our clothes and dishes by hand
- Deal with tons of factors outside our control (i.e. constant delays)
- Keep our tempers
- Be polite to everyone Constantly (even huge jerks / “you know what’s”)
- Try to indirectly communicate
- Try to accomplish one thing in a day
- Purposely not accomplish a project that can be done in 5 minutes because Ugandans really should be doing it themselves
- Try to develop projects in two years (which seems too little time as each day passes)
- Have people not care you are here for two years and only ask you for money
- Not have real showers
- Deal with ants, bugs, and creepy crawlies
- See sick kids everyday without anyone taking care of them
- Take medicine to not get malaria
- Get sick anyway for hundreds of other sources
Ahhh…the list goes on

All this while we miss our family and friends. Thank God our families and friends are awesome and support us being in Peace Corps. Can you imagine having a really horrible day, wanting to talk with someone back home, and having that person say “I told you so” or “you should never have gone there”? It happens. There are volunteers who have no support back home. Thank God for our families and friends! Thank God! You keep us happy, motivated, and we know you love us.

As far as the “I don’t want to leave” aspect of this dual conversation I am not going to tell you something cheesy like “I’m doing it for the kids.” That is not very accurate because most of our bad days stem from really rude, little shi*’s that live around us.

So why don’t we want to leave? Why are we here?

I’ll let you know when we figure that out.