Ace Ventura, When Nature Calls.

I am truly starting to believe that Uganda, and perhaps afrika in general, has a weird effect on animals. Perchance it is the different climate and environment in which they grow up, but I am noticing the animals we share in common act quite differently than what I am used to from home. For example, the roosters. Isn’t it their sole purpose and a known fact that they crow only at the break of dawn, to simply wake humans up so that they may start their day? And that they do not start at 230am and continue throughout the morning and the day in its entirety? I mean, how am I supposed to know when to wake up if you start crowing at 230am and continue throughout the night? What the shit is that, seriously? Whoever informed the roosters on their purpose here in Afrika was playing a cruel joke on the continent and its people. The fact that they are woken up by 230 and cannot start their day until the sun rises at 7am with no electricity, that is just inhumane. Somebody should shoot those roosters.

And lizards. Those little beezies are practical jokers here. Just about every morning I open my door to leave for work, and a lizard falls down right beside me, always just somehow missing my head. It’s like when you set a bucket of water or flour on top of the door so that when someone opens it, it spills all over them. But the lizards just do it with their bodies. And the way the geckos climb the wall and stop to have a staring contest with you. They like to mess with your mind.

And goats, man. Those mothers are ADORABLE here. It could very well be that I just never came across or paid much attention to them in the states, but everytime I see one here I think to myself, “That should be my pet.” They are so ridiculously uncoordinated and cute, and it is hilarious to watch them run or fight and head bunt each other on the side of the road. The downside to the goats is their weird resemblance to human voice. They literally sound like grown men calling for help. Case in point, the first weekend I was staying in my house, I woke up to what I thought was someone moaning in agony and crying out, “HELP!! HELP”. As it was 2am there was no way in hell I was getting out of my compound, my house or even my bed, so I waited for someone to come to the person’s rescue. But, it never happened. And for a good 1-2 hours, I listened to what I thought was a person dying. I later talked to my neighbors about it who said, “It was probably just the goats.” And I thought to myself…ya ok, cause that’s plausible. However, ever night thereafter I have heard the same noise and realized that it is in fact the goats, and have accepted the fact that I was wrong.

And cows seem to have some ulterior motives formulating in their head. Again, could very well be that I never socialized much with farm animals such as a cow. But with their humongous horns and those evil eyes that lock on you when they pass, as they slowly chomp their grass and flick their tail, its like they’re playing chicken with you, just waiting for the opportune moment to charge your ass. Side note, my friend here actually got knocked by a cow. We passed the cows every morning on our walk to and fro school, and they sometimes like to stand on our path and tempt us to continue or find an alternate route in the bush. And one day my friend thought she was in the clear but got dominated by the cow’s head. Another friend caught her in the air and somehow pushed the cow out of the way, but ya. The cows are demons beezies.

Spiders, surprisingly, not so creepy. Actually comforting because you know they are killing some more serious creatures that roam your joint. Jumping spiders are everywhere here. And back in the states they used to terrify me but here they are like little homies. They don’t disturb you, but just jump along while they’re on their merry way. Most spiders I find here are like that, super chill. But not those bright green/purple  stripped legged one that I found on my porch. Those colorful and poisonous little buggers are scary as eff. I don’t play with those ones. They look mean, just chilling on my close line for 2 days straight. Little shits. And if I catch one in mi casa, its on.

Cock Roaches. Also a creature I was never really familiar with until Afrika but am getting more used. Here, those gigantic creepy crawlers play dead. No joke. I’m not sure if they do that in the states as well, but they can sense when you see them or when you’re entering a room. Cause as soon as my eyes fall on it, BAM. Its frozen on its back with its legs dangling. So you think its dead, and go about your merry way or perhaps go to find a trash bag to bury the thing in. And as soon as you turn your back, you can hear their legs scramble to get back up and find the nearest exit. And then you turn and look at it and BAM, it freezes in its tracks again. And they’re like a cat with 9 lives. You can’t just stomp on them once, you literally have to stomp until you hear a pop and see that they are squished. Oh, and, they can hold their breath for a ridiculous amount of time. As you may have read before, I left one in a ziplocked bag from 7am-6pm, and when I came home he was still trying to figure a way out. And the air was still filled in the bag, so there was no way he was getting any oxygen. I dunno, steroids maybe?

Thankfully I have nothing to add on scorpions, as I have not seen a scorpion since my second siting the first week at site. We are entering the dry season, though, and my workmates keep saying that is when they come out. So, I am on alert. But, I did see my first snake in Uganda. I opened up my door, once again punked by a lizard who made me jump back in my house as he fell beside me, and then I saw something bright green and about 2-3 feet long fall from my bench. As I was already shocked from the lizard falling, I could not move an inch. I just saw the snake fall from the bench, gather its body and slither off the stoop and back in the grass. I was paralyzed by fear but could still only think, man, I hope I can get a picture of that before it hides! Sadly, and probably luckily, it did get away by the time I came back outside. And then I really realized what just happened, that there was a snake chillin on my porch and I was 1 foot away from it. I researched snakes in Uganda, and it is either a tree snake (which Aubrey thinks it is, and that her neighbors say they aren’t poisonous) or it is a green mamba—poisonous. Apparently, the green mamba is only in Kenya a Tanzania, says Wikipedia. But, I’ve heard others say they are in Uganda, along with the deadly black mamba, and are poisonous. The picture I saw looked like my snake, so, I’m not sure what it was. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the non-poisonous tree snake. We shall see.

PS, have you ever seen donkeys fight? Cause I saw it in the road the other day. There was a group or herd or whatever you call it, chillin in the middle of the road. As they went to scatter, they started bumping each other and apparently in donkey world, that shit ain’t cool. Cause all the sudden this one donkey jumped on its forelegs in the handstand position and started kicking his hind legs at the other donkey’s head. And then, lol, the victimized donkey chased after the bucking donkey and kept trying bite his tail/butt. LOL, I remember biting my lip from laughing at it, cause I knew I was just gunna look like the silly munu who thinks Afrika is funny. And now I know where Keysha got that stupid exercise from, where we balanced on our hands and kicked out legs up and out, “donkey kicks”…psh.

Outside of animals, another glorious thing about Uganda is its lovely transport system. Aka, horrible and deathly transport system. I won’t even bother mentioning the vehicles as I am still amazed at how they are able to make a 1970s POS cars still run on these horrible excuse of roads. But yes, the roads. Here up north, there are no paved roads. In Kitgum town, there are some tarmacs, but that is just for the businesses. As soon as you leave the streets of town, its all dirt baby. And holey. And bumpy. And narrow. And, scary as EFF. The somehow paved dirt road is really only wide enough for one car, but sometimes you get lucky where a stretch will allow two cars to pass without much adjustment on either ends. Usually, however, one car has to shift to the side and wait for the other to pass. Its like the road to Hanna, only theres not a cliff (usually) on the other side. Instead, there are trenches which I assume are for the flooding rain water to collect and hopefully stay off the road—but who are we kidding, that never works. So, often times, you shift to the ditch so the other can pass. But when you’re in a huge bus and its raining, sometimes shifting to the side ain’t so easy. Cause one time we tipped a bit and I thought I was over. And now every time we slant, I grab the person next to me in fear. And the “paved” dirt is not really paved. Rather, its holey and bumpy the whole way, and it literally feels like you’re driving with Ace Ventura in “When Nature Calls”, as he’s driving on the smooth tarmac road but bouncing all around like it’s the bush. Ya, well, that’s how we are 24/7 on the road. It hurts your insides and really hurts your tatas. But, the other day, we were coming home from the field and driving along the usual rollercoaster road, I had a box on my lap and was holding it down as the backseat was filled. So, I wasn’t using my hands to hold on to anything and keep me steady. Clearly Paul was not paying attention cause all of the sudden I hear a BOP BOP BOP and I feel my ass leave my seat and my head hit the ceiling of the car, THREE TIMES. That is not an exaggeration in the slightest. I literally got air three times and was only stopped at three by the gracious hand of Racbedo Richard that palmed ever so strongly the top of my head to prevent me from sailing up again. All I could do was laugh at what just happened because I did not understand. I held on to Richards for a minute, as I tried to piece it all together. My friend Mikael was with us and cracking up, and I said, “What, you didn’t bounce?” She answered, “Yes I did but not that high. I saw you and thought to myself, why is she bouncing so high?” I could not stop laughing for like 30 minutes, it was one of those crying laughs where you can’t say one word cause you’re laughing so hard. Richard goes, “Jose, why did you bounce higher than us? Is it that you aren’t as heavy as us (said with sarcasm as I am the biggest in the car)? You bounced like a ball.” That too set my laughter off even harder. It was effing hilarious and I wish you all could have seen it.

Ah, my life is good. It’s really hot and constant swamp-A, but its really good. I just got a nother package from my mama today, loaded with goodies. Cant wait to dig in!!

If you don’t hear from me before then, Happy Holidays!! Miss you all terribly and will be sad without you on this holiday season. Love yous.

Merry Christmass to all, and to all a good night!! Happy 2012!

WARNING: this post is long. been a while.

ecember 1, 2011. My first participation in World AIDS Day Celebration. In Uganda. Could it get any better? I’ll answer it for you: Nope.

So, my district had organized the celebration to be in the sub-county Mucwini and different organizations and schools participated by performing songs, dances or dramas. My favorite and the best of the entire day came from my fellow PCV’s school. He, Russ, works at a disabled children’s school where the majority of students are deaf. They put together a drama where they acted out a story thru sign language that was translated in Acoli…hence, I didn’t know exactly what was being said. But, these kids were so brillant and accurately conveyed their HIV-AIDS awareness message to the crowd and provided many, many laughs. There were also some traditional dances by the school kids that are always fun to watch. They vary in dance and beat but usually have the girls dancing against the boys drumming to simulate a type of courtship. I really wish I had charged my camera enough to record, cause it was really neat to watch. The primary schools did it before the secondary schools, and it was interesting to see the difference of how the different ages and genders interacted with each other. But very, very cool. I have a few pix that hopefully gives a brief idea of what I’m talking about.

My organization came with our community volunteers who sang a song for the performance. The volunteers help mobilize when we do VCT and usually perform a drama for entertainment, encouragement and education for villagers. Usually when we go into the field, there will be about 10 people, usually women, who mobilize by circling the village while singing songs and beating drums, with the frequent high pitched ululation (don’t worry, I captured that on film and will definitely share). But for World AIDS day, everyone participated in mobilizing. And it was super cool. All of the organizations and schools formed two single file lines that were led by a small band and marched around the village to call for the locals for VCT. At first, I was like, ugh why do we all have to do it. But, it was freaking neat. Everyone was walking and bopping to the beat, which I was nervous to do because my white ass stuck out and I didn’t want anyone making fun of me, but after about 4 minutes you just can’t help it and start walking with a strut. The older women continued their excitement through their “Ai-yai-yai-yai-yaiiiiiiiiii” every few seconds and everyone was just super involved. My friend Mikael, a fellow PCV in Kitgum and closest neighbor, was with me and we were just laughing the whole time. Sounds SUPER lame and cliché, but, I totally felt the spirit of the event during the walk. All the villagers came out of their homes and shops to see what was going on and everyone was very into the mobilization. Sadly, the event got a little less spiritual after that. Although the dramas, songs and dances were awesome to watch, Ugandans man, they sure do love to talk in the microphone. And say the same thing the person before them said, with the same facts, statistics and solutions to problems. And, they thank all the same people. Every time anyone talks, the same 5 people get thanked. It just ruined the performances and made the event seem too long and drawn out and screamed of a legacy of conditioned formality imposed on them by colonization—but, I digress. Outside of that, it was super neat and I am so glad that I was able to be a part of it.

At work I have been helping my workmate, and self-assigned counterpart, Racbedo Richard. You guys wanna know what Racbedo means? Rac means bad and bedo means to stay. So, my favorite workmate is named “stay bad”. I asked him how he aquired such a name and he explained that he was born at a time of struggle and conflict, and therefore his parents named him accordingly. Richard said, with some chuckles, “I think I am the only one in the world called Racbedo, so I am thankful to my father.”  The Acoli name their youth according to the time they were born. If they were born in a time of poverty, wealth, if their mother was chased away by her husband (yes, that is true. My workmake Winnie is named Aryemo Winnie because there was some conflict and her father chased her mother away while she was pregnant)…you get the picture. It is actually quite neat and interesting to see how people are named and just how much they live up to their names. My workmate Freddy is named Anywar, which means to disturb, and he totally lives up to his name. He’s the office joker and is always poking fun with people. But ya, that is how I got my name. I explained I was a surprise and that I was spoiled rotten by my family and was therefore name, Lamara, the most loved.

Anyway. Work has been pretty good. I’ve been assigned to working with Richard on data entry and our M&E program. I have no idea about monitoring and evaluating, but hopefully I’ll figure it out. I’ve also been going into the field with Richard and Mariana for VCT. The first time I went, Marianna handed me a piece of paper and said, “Here, you do this. I’ll show you how to do it. Here, is the date: you write the date. Here, is the client’s name: you write the client’s name” and proceeded to “teach” me how to do the work. “Yes, Marianna, I get that. How do I ask all of the questions in Acoli?” …chirp…chirp…(if you couldn’t hear it, that’s crickets of silence). Ya. So, I got reassigned to registration where it was less Acoli. But still intimidating and nerve-wracking. The first day at it sucked, because my pronunciation was (and is) still off and I’m not too confident. Some were nice, until the town drunk decided to come sit on top of me and disturb me. That was super frustrating, as he insisted he “needed” me and that I take him to America. The locals laughed at him, which only egged him on and my workmates did not understand my eye-brow communication when I tried to say, get this mother away from me. I thought I was getting pretty fluent in the eye-brow communication, but I thought wrong. Here, Ugandans are able to use non-verbal communication by just raising their eye brows or pushing out their lips. The lip thing is beyond me and fortunately not common up north (from what I can see anyway, maybe it is there), but the eye brow thing I thought I was starting to understand. But no, and my workmates waited about 30 minutes to get homie off my lap. But, I am happy to say after that discouraging trial run, the field has gotten better and my Acoli is approving. I am able to hear the villagers a little more when they speed whisper their names and answers and I am becoming more confident when I speak. So, I’ve been enjoying the field.

I also get a little daily practice on my walk to and from work. They are doing some construction/plumbing in town, so since I have moved in I have had workers all around me. When I first walked up the hill (I have a steep ass hill right by my house that I have to hike multiple times a day, and it sadly does not get easier the more I do it), I saw all the men and thought, oh great. I gotta walk up this hill, all sweaty, red and panting out of breath with these fools waiting to disturb me. But, I said a small apwoyo (thank you, which is a go to in any situation, I shall discuss later) and they have become my buddies. They get a kick out of my small Acoli and greet me everyday. Aside from the two asses who tell me to give them money, they are my homies and I look forward to our paths crossing. Sadly, they are finishing the work by my house, so I don’t see them as often.

But back to the Apwoyo. Here, Apwoyo is the go-to word. And it means, Thank you. And you say thank you for EVERYTHING. Let me give you a few examples. When you pass people on the street, greet your workmates in the morning or just basically come into contact with anyone, these are some of the common thanks you give:

Apwoyo coo (thank you for waking)

Apwoyo bino (thank you for coming)

Apwoyo neni (thank you for seeing you)

Apwoyo ba (an all encompassing thank you)

Therefore, when I return to the states, I’m gunna be like, “Thank you for waking up today!...Thank you for showing up!” It doesn’t necessarily translate well. But, is actually pretty neat to think about and interesting to note the differences of our culture compared to theirs. Definitely more people centered and embracing, for sure. 

Mikael and I finally started with our Acoli teacher, who is just the sweetest and most cheerful old man ever. He always has the biggest grin on his face with his chipmunk cheeks. The first day we were supposed to meet, the networks were out so we couldn’t reach each other by phone. So, I rudely went about my evening while my lapwonya (my teacher) came to my compound and waited for me. After an hour or so when I didn’t show up, he left copies of notes he had written up for my guards to give me. You don’t have to say it, cause I felt like an ass on the spot.

For thanksgiving we all met up in Gulu town to celebrate. There were about 50 volunteers who came to our regional celebration and we cooked and feasted at the local Ethiopian restaurant and had an after party at a fellow PCV’s, Michelle, compound. The food was, AMAZING. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green been casserole, salad, roasted pork, macaroni and cheese, pumpkin pie, brownie crumbles, cake, home made bread…ah it was so good. And then we went to Michelle’s and had a bonfire in her compound. It was pretty awesome and everyone was stuffed from delicious American food. It is crazy how much food can really mean to you. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’ve always had an appreciation for food. I love it. But hot diggity damn, when you don’t have access to everything that is good and that you are used to, it gets to you. The smallest resemblance of home can just make your life. Luckily for me, I haven’t been struggling that much since homestay. My family sends me AWESOME packages loaded with goodies like snickers, cereal and pasta/pesto/artichoke sauce. And, I have some friends who are effing talented at cooking. But, the American celebration with American food was fan-freaking-tastic.

Other than that, I’ve been pretty much chillin. I’m loving my life here and cant believe I’ve been here for 4 months already. Only 1 year and 11 months to go, lol. Its going by so fast, but at the same time, I cannot believe I’ve been gone from my babies for 4 months. I had my first breakdown last week. I was looking at pix of Giada and Coupe, and I just could not believe it. Its hard enough seeing how big and grown Jack and Tru are getting, but at least I got to see them grow up. I’m missing out on a lot with all of them, and its depressing. Those little baybays are so effing beautiful. But, such is life, right? Oh, also. im 25. im a quarter of a century year old. it feels weird.

Sorry this one is kinda long, haven’t written in a while and I guess had more to say than I thought. Miss you all and wish you a happy holiday season. Love yous.

random thoughts...

hello hoes. so, i was going thru my stuff today and i discovered some blogs i had written during the first couple weeks i had no internet. so, i went thru and took little snipits out that i thought may be interesting. hope you enjoy.

7/8/11—2 days in.

We are staying at a place called “Banana Village” where we are bunking up in rooms for a week of orientation. Luckily, I missed the 20 bed dorm of all FEMALES and have been bunking with 5 other ladies, 4 of whom are all above the age of 55. Our group is the most diverse, so we are told, as we have a broad age group ranging from 22 to 69, 5 married couples, multiple ethnicities, home states…the list went on. We start our days at about 7am with some typical East Afrikan breakfast of bread, pb&j, bananas, chai, coffee, tea, hard boiled/fried egg. We’ve met most of our trainers and in-country directors/coordinators and have been lectured on all the protocols and safety measures set in place for us. Dad, you will be happy to know we are in good hands and have tons of people looking out for us. The head hancho is a dude who worked in Rwanda during the genocide, so, he knows his shit. We’ve also been learning Ugandan culture as well as the Lugandan language which is very similar to Kiswahili and makes me happy every time we have class (although its really only been like 2 days). But still, it makes sense and I am following it so far.

Today we went into Kampala, the capital city, to try and learn our new turf. It was just like Nairobi, but a little … not better, but, kinda better-lol. I haven’t been to Nairobi since January of 2009, but I don’t remember the roads being as nicely paved or organized, or the standardization of public transport. It is still extremely chaotic and insane and no one follows the rules of the road such as stop lights, stop signs or even direction of roads. Its still hard to believe people are able to make it alive walking on the sidewalk let alone driving on the roads. The still have matatus aka 14 passenger vans that cram 20-30 peeps at a time, and boda bodas that carry multiple people at a time, even little baybays.

Our group ate at an amazing Ethiopian restaurant that was, just like Kenya, in the living room of a woman’s house—where only the best ones are. While “familiarizing” ourselves with the taxi/bus parks, it decided to rain. Member how I said the roads were paved earlier? Ya, of course not these ones. So, as we were finding our way through the taxi park mazes of shops and matatu bumpers, we were shuffling through mudd and getting wet. But, luckily we were taken to a bar that over looked the taxi parks and I got to have what I’ve been craving ever since I left the continent: TUSKER. And it was delicious. We stopped at a local bar with more PCV (peace corps volunteers) and drank some more beers and talked to the kids that crowded around us. I also got to try a rolex, at the recommendation of my friend Andrew, which is pretty effing delicious. It is a chapatti (delicious fried dough that is similar to naan but kinda better) rolled up with a fried egg, cabbage and tomatoes with some salt. MmmMmm good. Overall, Kampala was beautiful with many similarities to Kenya.

28/8/11

pet fish for dinner is not the bizz.

The second day I was at my homestay, my dad brought home pet fish in a big jar. The kids got a kick out of it started feeding the fish their food, aka egg shells. Anyway, my dad always tells me I don’t put enough soup on my potatoes and he doesn’t get why I like them “dry”. Well, the reason I can eat the potatoes dry is because they are sweet potatoes, and the most delish sweet potatoes ever. They don’t need anything else but to be boiled. So, I naturally enjoy eating them plain (and this fool obviously doesn’t know the family I come from and how we grub potatoes). But anyway, I could tell it was concerning him that I did not eat enough soup, and so finally the other night I just scooped a big spoon full of the soup on my matoke (boiled bananas). Usually the soup is like a meat broth or g-nut (ground nut) sauce. Ya, not this night. This night, I took the biggest spoonful ever to impress my dad, and guess what it was? An entire school of my pet fish’s family…everywhere. The power usually goes out at night so we have a small solar lamp that doesn’t really light much up, but it managed to reflect the silver skin and bulging eye balls of the itty bitty fish, just staring at me. I don’t get that grossed out with food and can usually eat whatever is put in front of me. But shhhhhhhhhh, I was immediately sick. I was like, ok maybe its kinda appetizing don’t be so white. But, no. sh*t was not appetizing. Sh*t was actually kinda disgusting. I couldn’t even chew it, it grossed me out so badly. I was trying to just swallow huge gulps so I couldn’t taste it, but even that didn’t help. I could still feel them and I thought I was going to yak. I resolved with myself that since I have been doing good eating everything else they gave me it was ok if I didn’t finish this one. So, I slowly by slowly started covering the fish with my matoke to try to hide my hatred. I hope the got the picture, because I don’t think I can fake that one. If I get it again, I will definitely say something to them.

On a more delicious note, pork here is absolutely fabulous. And, im pretty sure im eating the Afrikan equivalent of Mexican buche or chi charon…Gets, you’d love it. It has quickly become my favorite meal, and my brother Ben knows it.

2/9/11

Anyhoo, training seems to be dragging of late as we are all anxious to break out and get our hands dirty. We have been doing a lot of mock field work type deals to help us see the different areas we will be working and try to get in as much info as possible. We’ve visited the country’s leading HIV-AIDS organization, TASO, which performed songs for us and told us their stories. It was a very moving, emotional and touching experience…it reminded me of the morning prayers at Matibabu. We recently visited the children’s malnutrition unit at the main hospital…reality check. Crazy to see just how much we take for granted in our lives, just in terms of common knowledge. We were shown the demonstrations of how the doctors teach mothers proper nutrition to feed their children, and things like knowing children need protein to grow and veggies for minerals/vitamins…its just crazy. All I kept thinking of was my babies at home, and how grateful I was for their circumstance. Crazy and yet amazing to see and hear about all the good work being done and extremely daunting to see how much more work is needed.

On a lighter note, I finally got internet yesterday. I saw my lovely friend aubtree mooch aka Aubrey at our all volunteer conference on Wednesday. Man oh man, let me tell you. I was SO excited to see her. We were meeting our freaking ambassador from America, the head hancho, and I saw Aubrey, squealed and ran and jumped into her arms. It was embarrassing but well worth it. Seeing my aubTree made my so happy. I still cannot believe I’m placed in Uganda for Peace Corps for the next two years with one of my best friends. It was so comforting to see her again and know I have her here. And also, she hooked it up with the internet modem as we have been unable to go into town to get connected. And therefore, I can now talk to you beezys. BOOYA. But ya, Aub and I are planning our return to Kenya and all the delicious food we will scarf. CANNOT WAIT!

“You look like…*a few air punches thrown*..you look like a boxer.”

Yup. My workmate said that to me today. I look like a boxer. Grrrrrreat. Haven’t heard that one before, at least its new.

So, the first week at site, I had pee butt. And, yes, I did milk it and stay home. But, I got all settled in and familiar with the area and that is what we are supposed to be doing for the first 3 months anyway. My boss did take me around one day to meet the local officials and get to know important places like the police station. I mopped my floors and counters with bleach and washed so much laundry that my knuckles were bleeding (which means I do it wrong, btw). I had pork and chips every meal for quite some time because I was waiting for my gas tank to power my 4-stove top oven. Which I now have. Which is flipping amazing. The first night I made butter noodles, with Blueband butter or margarine or some weird stuff nobody really knows what is but is forced to use due to the lack of real butter and the extreme prices of olive oil. But, even though it really didn’t taste that good, it was amazazazing and I had a perma-smile on my face the whole meal. Also, it is so incredibly wonderful to be able to eat dinner when I am hungry at 5/6/7ish instead of waiting until 9/930 and going to bed with a stuffed belly of carbs like sweet potatoes, posho (boiled maize), rice, irish potatoes, cassava and matoke (boiled bananas). I feel like I can breathe again.

My friends came to visit during the weekend and it was fabulous. The couple who is right near the south sudan border came and cooked us breakfast and a delicious Mexican feast that brought tears of happiness to our eyes. The first breakfast potatoes sautéed with onions and olive oil, pankcakes and scrambled eggs literally…we were so happy. After 2.5 months of plain bread or banana (or if your lucky a boiled egg) for breakfast, that meal made dreams come true. I did end up getting in trouble, however, for having guests stay the night. Apparently, the compound I stay in is a deeply religious organization from Italy (doing very good work in the area) and has lots of rules. They did not, however, break any of the rules to me. So, I naturally assumed that my house was my house and I could have anyone and everyone over to make use of my awesome digs. But the second night, on a Saturday around 10/11pm, my neighbors came over and kinda lectured me. Apparently I had kept my next door neighbor up all day and blablabla, but, they informed me we were not allowed to have guests stay the night. Good thing I had 7 people crashing on my floor that night, and also good thing I had just purchased 2 mats (not cheap, btw) for my couple to use every weekend. So naturally, I was embarrassed and wanted to move far, far away. But the next day I talked to my neighbors and they explained that we can have guests, but there is a curfew and they are allowed to sleep on the hostel in the compound. And having men stay over is a big No-No, only if youre married is it allowed. So I was breaking the rules all over the place and cannot have the house parties I was imagining in my head. Boo.

I went to work Monday and had a pretty good day. We went into the field to help a local branch with documentation and also gather xmas cards that children were making for their sponsors in Italy. Once we were done, an old man who was very pleasant and welcoming sat next to me and decided to school me on some Acoli. I did alright here and there, but homeboy was just talking way to fast so I said a lot of, “motmot” (slow slow). But he was very sincere and got a kick out of my attempts. Oh, and—there was one point where he was complimenting me and then stated, “and you are very fat.” The first time, I didn’t hear him so I said, “what?” He clearly repeated, “You are very fat.” I decided to say “what” 5 more times while he tried to “compliment” me until he got tired of saying it and switched subjects. Yes, I am what the men call, “my size”. I am big. And they make sure I know it. **side note: being “big” here is a good thing and attractive to the people. It is a sign that you are healthy and have no stress. So, im sexy. Holla at ya girrrrrrrrl.

Today I was a bit intimidated at first as we entered a village behind the market and all eyes focused on the munu (what the Acoli people call an mzungu). I am used to the turning heads and fixed eyes, but it’s a little more intense outside of town. But, the people were lovely and greeted me with big smiles and laughs at my simple Acoli. I met the only other woman in the world with the name Bibiana (for those of you who don’t know, I chose Bibiana as my confirmation name. She was a lady in the bible who did something cool, but I chose her name for its uniqueness and randomness) and was very excited about it. I also encountered an old woman who was so ecstatic to see me, and told me where her home was and that I must come visit her, too. I actually understood most of what she was saying which was pretty exciting. And, we actually ended up going to her house. We were making stops to check adherence to ARVs (anti-retroviral drugs treating HIV-AIDS) and visit with our clients. I saw a baby that I wanted to steal, she was so beautiful and had such personality. And the old woman handed me a bundle of “boo” (a type of greens) to help her pick. Really, she wanted to show me how to pick the local greens so that I could learn to cook her local food. It was really sweet. I encountered two men who randomly thru some Kiswahili at me and were shocked when I responded with force and that it was much better than my Acoli. It was really nice to do a little showing off in front of my workmates who hear me struggle at basic Acoli on a daily basis. I also got to spend a little more one on one time with certain workmates, which was very nice. The people doing this work are amazing and inspiring people. To watch them interact with our clients, and the joy they get out of each other…it is really something to see. We finished our day with one more home visit to a woman called “Santa” whom I had visited on my site visit a while back. She has been bed ridden for the past 3-4 years and is taken care of by her elderly mother, who has such spunk and energy. Santa once again had the biggest smile on her face when she saw us and as soon as she explained where her pain was, she finished with, “but I am happy.” It is easy to see she is my organization’s favorite. She is a wonderful and kind woman, and I enjoy her very much. I can tell she will become my favorite as well. I already want to bring her some goodies next visit.

Anyhoo. I have encountered no more scorpions since the 2 last week. But everyone has been confirming that they are common here and that this is the season. They also inform me that, “there is nothing really to do to prevent.” They did reassure me that I most likely had visitors inside my house and back to back because no one had been living in my house for so long. But as long as I clean and spray bug spray every now and then, I will be ok. Oh, and, to sleep with my mosquito net. So, keep yo fingers crossed! Oh, they also told me, “if you get bit…you go to the hospital right away.” Confirmation: I am living with the deadly scorpions. Also, my lovely friend riannon told me to research scorpions to ease my angst over the little bugers. Ya well, had the opposite affect. Because although I found out only 25 of the 1000+ types of scoprions are deadly, it is the small, brown ones that are most deadly. And yes, that is what my visitors look like. Living my life likes its golden!

Oh, I heard back from the softball/baseball peeps. And they are very eager to have me help and cannot wait for me to teach girls how to pitch!! Yup. That’s whats up. I guess all those years of whack bullpen catching and sitting thru pitching lessons might actually benefit me after all. Coach Sherwood and Coach Martin, thanks homies. I’ll make you proud! I am actually pretty stoked as I have something that I know I can do and will be good at. If I can get this ball rolling, my next 2 years are going to be a breeze.

 I wish all of you a Happy Halloween and will be missing the good ol American tradition of dressing up and trick or treating. And also I will miss yous.

i will be posting pix this weekend because i will have free internet :) any skypers, hollerrrrrr.

Apwoyo ba, wanen!

Getting in touch with my scorpio..

So this morning, I decided to be like the Ugandans and give my porch a good, thorough cleaning after washing my sheets (which, by the way, are a b*tch to hand wash. I thought chonies were my worst enemy, but I thought wrong. It is definitely bed sheets and the agony of training to ring out the water of queen size sheets). I was even considering washing the porch with soap and water but first, I had to sweep all the leaves off. Early in the weekend, I had set an old bath rug and basket that was left for me in my bathroom. It was just kinda nasty and I’d rather clean up cement floors than nasty carpet-ya know? So anyway, I set it on my porch while I did my cleaning and kinda forgot about it yesterday. So when I went to go sweep, I moved the basket and picked up the carpet. Then, I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw a frog, or maybe it was a toad, and a creature I had never seen in real life: a scorpion. I froze for a good 10 seconds, first staring at the toad/frog as it did not move. The other dark spot I didn’t figure out right away, then after a while I realized it what it was. The scorpion looked squished so I thought it was dead. I went to poke the toad/frog to shoe it away, but it didn’t move. I thought to myself, wow man, I sure did get lucky with these creatures being dead and not attacking me. Then I went to go push the scorpion away and it moved. It started scurrying toward the broom after I touched it and I freaked out. I kinda just starred for a few more seconds and then shut my door, ran in the house first to call my friend and then to grab my camera to document this scorpion on my porch. I sat staring at the thing through my screen door, not knowing what to do but badly wanting to take a snap to show everyone I know. My friend kept telling me to kill it right then or else it would get away and worse come back and get inside. I waited too long and the thing crawled inside the whicker basket that I had set outside. So after about another 3 minutes of just staring and sitting on the phone, and my friend calling me a panzee, I opened the basket and saw the scorpion. It was just sitting with its tail or stabber thingy curled up in the air. I wonder what my guards thought as I just stood on my porch for a good, solid minute staring into a basket. I found a glass bottle inside, when back out and stared for another minute and finally summoned the balls to attack. And I did, like 20 times. But not before taking a few snaps close up for you all to see. Right after killing the scorpion and saving the compound from his deadliness, my guard dog came to see if I was alright and is still sitting on my porch, protecting me. And that my friends, is the tale of my scorpion encounter. Oh, also: the frog/toad was alive because it disappeared when I first went inside. Clever creature knows how to play dead.

Update…So the past weekend, I’ve been cleaning and organizing my new pad. I have finished putting up all the pix I brought of my family and friends, and it already is making me feel at home. I swept and mopped all my floors, cleaned the counter tops and cupboards, washed my sheets, chonies (3 weeks worth) and one load of laundry (and I still have like, 3 more loads to do-yippie). I took this Monday off to finish up and mainly go into town to get my gas tank for my four stove top-oven :) Man oh man, I cannot wait to use that thing. The only meal I have eaten since arriving Friday night is pork and chips. Which is absolutely amazing here, but, not as satisfying as it once was. Also peanut butter sammies, I bought some bread and a jar of PB—always delicious.

Oh another fun fact—the first night I was taking a shower I had another exciting experience. As I was finishing up my AMAZING running water shower, thinking to myself how lucky I am and enjoying every minute of it, I felt something drop beside me. I jumped as much as I could in my small space and saw the cockroach scurry around, not knowing what to do. My first thought was, “holy shit, my shower rains cockroaches?!” But my quick glance up at the shower head proved me wrong as I saw the small holes that in no way could squeeze out that size of a cockroach. As the roach kept running toward me trying to get out of the thunderstorm he just fell into, I had to, unwillingly, step on him (don’t get grossed out, I wear shower slippers). Homeboy must have been trying to sneak a peek over the shower wall and slipped…poor tyke. So anyway, I now semi fear that my life may be taken by some curly tailed scorpions or an army of cockroaches seeking revenge of their fallen homie. Hopefully, word doesn’t get back.

This blog wasn’t very informative but my experience with the scorpion was so thrilling I just had to share. Wudong maber dano na!! **You stay well my people**

Wutye nining??

An Nyinga Jose ento kilwonga ni Lamara. Lamara tye “the most loved”. Abiciro kitgum tiyo tic i Meeting Point. Iya Yom!!

Translation: My name is Jose (because Ugandans, and Afrika as a whole, cannot fathom nor pronounce “joey” and have all re-named me Jose. Not the Mexican Jose with a silent J pronounced as a H, but the Jose close to Josie, but not lame. It kinda sounds like “Jo-zay”. Its actually kinda cute, ive become quite attached to it) but I am called Lamara meaning “the most loved” (uh-huh, I got it like that even in Uganda). I will be going to Kitgum doing work in Meeting Point. My stomach is full. …just have an “Oi? Wtf?” moment? Ya, well, in Acoli, the saying my stomach is full implies that one is happy. Who knew I’d fit so well into this culture…

So, as ive said before, I will be going north to a district called Kitgum and placed right outside of Kitgum town. In the north, the main language is Acoli, which weve been studying for a little less than 2 months. It is in the Luo language family and the language and culture very much resembles the Jaluo people I stayed with in Kenya. So, its been like a homecoming since day one. I’ve loved it. We just took our language exams yesterday after studying the language for less than 2 months…I passed. Woot. Woot. I passed with the minimum score required, and therefore I will make use of the mentor PC will provide and step my game up. Imma speak this acoli by the end of my two years, you just wait and see.

Anyway, as I’ve said before, Uganda can actually get cold and cause you to wear a sweater. But not where I am going, of course not. Why would I be so lucky? I am going to the place where the Ugandans say is the hottest in the country, right below South Sudan. A couple in my group is placed in the eastern/northern part of Kitgum and can see South Sudan in their backyard.  But anyway, I am going to be working in Meeting Point, an organization started by my supervisor in the early 90s because she wanted to provide emotional support to peoples living with or affected by HIV-AIDS and reduce the stigma of the disease. It was one of the first HIV-AIDS organizations in the north and has been running for almost 20 years, even throughout the war. As I am told, they have been largely supported by Italian doctors and volunteers, as well as other European volunteers, and have a compound for said volunteers called “AVSI”.  That is where I will be staying. And it is like a little Europe inside Uganda. Actually I’ve never been to Europe so I don’t know if its like Europe, but, it definitely is not like living the life of Ugandans. **I am listening to a mix from my best friend dj soso fresh and the song, “I just came to say hello” is playing and I am so happy** My home/apartment is fully furnished with a bed, table + chairs, couch and four sitting chairs. My kitchen has a big fridge, sink (with running water), counter and best of all.. a four-stove top OVEN. I am going to have an oven.. I cant get over it. I also have a running shower and a flush toilet with a functional sink. And, I have the only and biggest closet I have ever seen in Afrika. All these wonderful amenities seem amazing, but they have been causing me a lot of guilt. When ya sign up for peace corps, you do it when the thought and hope, at least for me, to live a different kind of life. My main motive for joining the peace corps was to learn and be a part of a new culture and I had planned on immersing myself in it. With my new, and very fortunate, living situation, I wont really be doing that. Not only do I have pretty much every aside from drinkable water and a wash machine, I am living in a compound with ex-pats… not in the community. So, my thought of living as “one” with the people (even though that could never really happen) and learning the language and culture is not realistic, and its going take much more effort on my part to immerse myself. However, I do have the cool pad that everyone ones to come visit and I welcome any and all with open arms!

When we did our language and future site immersion, we got to tour around the main city, Gulu. It’s a lot like kisumu in Kenya. Its not the hustle and bustle, dirty and compact streets of nairobi but it is a big town with everything that one needs. Including some good old America pizza :) I have a few friends who will be living in gulu, so my excuse to go there will be justified. Anyway, I stayed in my new home for 2 days and observed at my new job. I went on field outreaches with them and saw a small glimpse of what our work is. My new org is a lot like Matibabu in Kenya; it is a clinic providing VCT and home based care to peoples living with or affected by HIV-AIDS and travels to isolated communities without access to such services. The story and passion of my supervisor, as well as my other amazing workmates, is very ispiring and encouraging and I feel so privileged to be in her presence. Also, I very much want to get involved with the peace and reconciliation work taking place here in the north. If any of you remember the “Invisible Children” that was popular the past few years, that is where we are living. So, needless to say, I am surrounded by amazing people and endless opportunities…cannot wait. OH! And, they have baseball and softball here!! They have some camps taking place in January and I am signing up to participate—I cannot wait to get back on the field, my life will be complete once again.

We all were sworn in to the Peace Corps yesterday, on the 13 of October, 2011. It was great, I didn’t think it would be a big deal but I felt myself becoming a little emotional as we took our oath. And I looked at my favorite couple, Bill and Holly, and saw Bill crying which in turn immediately gave me tears. But, tis official—we are Peace Corps Volunteers. BOOYA beetchesssssss. And today, we all moved to our new homes and sites. The Kitgum grew, composed of myself, Mikael, Russ, Aubrey and Patrick all left this morning at 6am to catch the 8am, 8 hour long bus to Kitgum. The drive was great, aside from the part where it was raining and our bus pulled over to let someone off, slide in the ditch and started tipping on my side. As I was against the window, feeling the bus pass a safe balance point and near tipping over, I thought to myself, “Holy shit, its happening…This is how I go.” My rational brain told me that if I moved to the other side of the bus, it would be enough to transfer the weight necessary to stop the tipping. So I yelled at Mikael and unknowingly tried to push her out of her seat. My supervisor and other Ugandans were laughing at us, mainly at me, and said, “its ok, its just slipping. He just has to get out of the ditch.” Nah homies, that shit almost tipped. But, needless to say, the driver had mad skills and got us out of the predicament without a scratch. And we all had a good laugh at the silly mzungu who doesn’t know. Cuddos to people driving on dirt roads that are not big enough for 2 compact cars to pass evenly without swiping of the others side view mirror and have only the option to bail in the ditches on either side of the single lane road. Hot damn, people here are resourceful.

As happy as we all were to peace out to training and become real life volunteers and live in our own homes, we are all very sad to leave each other. For the past 2 months, weve been staying in wacky wakiso with homestays, going to training every day and eating food not of our choice, but we have had each other. And now we are divided throughout Uganda. Tis sad friends, tis sad. But thankfully we have things like IST (in service training) and holidays like Thanksgiving to reunite. I will def miss my homies and bitching about all the crazy shit that happens to us on a daily basis. Lucky for me, I am only 15 minutes to my future bestie Mikael and like 20/30 to Russ. I don’t see myself living any type of hard life here in Uganda, as I sit here typing with my music playing thru my speaker, fan blowing on my face and my cold water at my fingertips. (Incase you haven’t caught on, this is my guilt trying to resolve being dealt this amazing hand for the next 2 years…oi)

So, if any want to send some good ol’ fashion snail mail, it would make my life. My address is now the following:

Josephine Daniels PCV

Meeting Point Kitgum

PO Box 96

Kitgum, Uganda

Also, packages are greatly appreciate and valued J My telephone number is +256773127476 and I believe I receive most text messages from the states. It is kinda expensive, about 25-50 cents to give/receive texts.

I miss and love you all.

some pix of my bedroom with the kagembes...my mosquito net with my undies drying inside..

The living room, kitchen and dining room. yes, thats a fridge :)

My front/back/side yard..

for some reason gigantic pix of my shower and clothes washing area. plus the annoying ass chickens that wake me up every morning, starting at 4am. do they know the sun isnt up yet? someone needs to inform them.

my pit latrine. i set my shoe next to it so you all get somewhat of an idea just how small this hole is. you can only imagine how it takes skill to aim and multi-task..if ya know what i mean..

our kitchen next to the rain water collector and the pad locked door to the outside world.

Two months laterrrrr…

Yo. Its taken me quite a while to write anything on this here blog, but here I am. Finally. I have been out of commission due to lack of internet in this town we are staying in, and with the few times I was able to get online I did not want to waste it with the time it would take to journal to you all…no offense. Instead, I skyped with my family and I got to see my precious little babies who are growing up without me. And it is sad but so wonderful to see their beautiful faces. Anyhoo.

So, let me catch you up on some things ive been doing…

1.     ONE. night buckets. Can any of you guess what that is? I would hope not, cause if you can, you got issues. So, here in Uganda, the majority of people have outside pit latrines for going potty. Some special folks, like some of my lucky peers, have toilets inside the house. I, however, do not, and use my outside latrine to relieve myself. Everytime I stand up from a squat I still turn around to flush the toilet…crazy how some things never change. Anyway, so. Another fun fact about Uganda is that once the sun goes down at 7pm, you cant see shit. Literally. Due to that fact, its not very safe; not being able to see what youre doing, dogs, thieves or better yet, night dancers (ya, ill get to that one later). So, once the family has pad locked you in for the night at around 930/10, youre stuck. So anytime you wake up needing to run to the toilet, you instead run to your night bucket and pop a squat. Mhmm. That’s whats up. At first, I was like, “oh wow. Exciting” but not too afraid. I always have to pee during the night so I expected to use the thing frequently but had confidence in myself and believed I would ONLY use it for number one aka “short calls” here in Uganda. The first night at home stay, however, I was having some stomach issues and something close to what we wazungu (whities) call “pee butt” here in afrika. I still had confidence in myself when I woke up at about 2am in dyer need of my night bucket. So, willingly, I got up, took off the lid and situated my squat supporting myself with the wall. I remember thinking to myself, “ya, im using the night bucket. What up.” And that’s when it hit me. For those of you who have had anything resembling pee butt, you know that its not controllable. And so, needless to say, my “short call” turned very quickly into a “long call” without my consent. Into a bucket. Inside my room. I returned to my bed very heated, cursing the universe for what it had just put me through. And that my friends, is the night bucket. Thankfully, the lid actually works wonders and keeps my room so fresh and so clean. DAY ONE

2.    TWO.  now, just as the pit latrines are outside, so too are the showers. Or bathing area for the bucket bath. Whilte the latrines have doors and are inclosed, the bathing area has three walls, thankfully all high enough so no peeping tom can get a peak, and an open area unsuccessfully covered by a drape that is way to small and blown into my face by the slightest gust of wind. But, that opening faces our high, back wall-only the chickens can peep the mzungu. So bucket baths I am cool with, but the fact of taking them outside…I didn’t really know the schedule. The sun doesn’t start rising until 630am and it goes down by 715pm, and due to our terrific schedule, we are on the road walking by 7am and home by 7pm. So the first couple, or so, days I was confused and not knowing when my turn to bathe was. And as I am shy bear, I was afraid to ask anyone. So, I kinda skipped some days of showering, thankfully coming to homestay on a thursday and having the weekend right around the corner. Then finally, one night after dinner, I got the nerve to ask my host dad when I could bathe. He said, “whenever you want?” turns out, I can shower during dark because my amazing brother ben would stay up and protect me. And from that day forth joey has bathed. Kinda. Lol anyway. The first shower outside: weird. I was constantly looking over my shoulder to see if there was any angle someone could sneak a peak. Then the second shower, I was more relaxed and able to focus on getting the job done. And then by the 3^rd shower, I was able to look up at the night sky and bathe under the stars. And it was pretty freaking awesome. But what was even more awesome was the next night when I was able to bathe at night in the rain. Not the pouring down rain, but the nice rain. It was badass. And so peaceful. Now, I very much enjoy my bathing time outside, minus when I turn around and find the cat’s glowing eye balls piercing at me from the roof. I guess there is an angle to sneak a peak.. other than the pitch black, 6am cold weather plus cold water baths, my showers are amazing. BOOYA

3.    THREE.  walking to and fro school. You know how you always hear old people say crap like, “well back in my day, we had to walk miles to get to class” or “I had to walk thru blizzards” blablabla. Well, here in my day, I have to HIKE an hour to class and an hour home from class. And since I have to leave by 7am, before the sun is bright enough to shine in my room and the power is often out, I sometimes have to get ready by flashlight. Guess who has two thumbs and looks sexy? Not this girl. Anyway. By the time I get to class, I am a sweaty mess. Especially since the last leg of our journey is a steep ass hill leading up to the front gates of school. And, we often get to hike in slippery ass mudd or quick sand due to the crazy storms here. It rains a lot in Uganda. Which brings me to my next point. wait for it...

4.     FOUR. Afrika can be cold. Yup, tis true friends. I can sometimes see my breath. Not often, but it happens. And it rains so hard and so much. The thunder and lightening storms are insane, and my favorite is when I get to fall asleep to the pouring down rain on our tin roof. It is so soothing and drowns out the stupid roosters and chickens right outside my window that start at 4am. We traveled to a site in the south west where there are mountains, and there was fog everywhere, just like home. And I even had to wear a sweater (at times). For two entire days, I did not sweat. It was beautiful. Side note; my future home where I will be living for 2 years is in the north, in a town called kitgum. And Ugandans say kitgum is the hottest place in Uganda…yesssssssssssss. Look out kitgum for two years, here I come! WOOO

5.     AND FIVE. Ugandan belly. I knew coming to afrika I would probably gain weight because here, they appreciate their women a little on the thick side. So, they like to plump the skinny Americans or “keep the shape” of those like myself who are already a little plump. But, here in Uganda, they sure do love their carbs. Although I am eating some delicious food cooked by my brother ben (hes the shit, I love him), I eat HELLA carbs. And the carbs are not just potatoes and rice, although they have the most delicious sweet potatoes ever as well as “irish” or normal potatoes. They also have po sho, what I call ugali, and a little something called “matoke”. Matoke, this wonderful discovery, is a big lump of boiled/smashed plaintains—not flavored. Mhmm. And it is bugandan’s favorite thing, EVER.  Don’t get me wrong, its eatable and with some good g-nut sauce (ground nut sauce {also somehow grubtown}), its good. I even crave it now when I travel and stay away from home for a few days. But hot damn, when you have to eat matoke AND rice AND potatoes AND cassava at one sitting…you can imagine my Ugandan belly growing and growing and growing… that’s when you become thankful for pee butt flushing that ish right out of your system! BOO BAM

Alright my lovelies, I have stayed up late writing this and must hit the hay. I hope I have given you all a little glimpse into the amazing life in Uganda that has become my own. When we were driving thru busheni the other day, I was looking outside the window thinking about the elephants we just saw by the road, and I had an epiphany: this is my life. And it was a very comforting, affirming, and reassuring feeling. I feel at home here, and I am so excited for the next two years. So, as we say in my new Acoli language, dong maber!!

Miss and love you all dearly.

im leaving, on a jet plane, dont know when ill be back again.

hellllllloooo!

this entry wont be very interesting, but i wont be able to write for a coupe weeks so i just wanted to say bye!! we leave tomorrow at 630pm for brussels and leave brussels at 10am and arrive in entebbe, uganda at 945pm.

thank you all for the in person goodbyes, calls, texts, emails, fb posts and everything else. made my sad day a little better :)

love yous.

counting down..

hello my lovelies,

this is going to be my means of updating you all of my life in uganda for the next 27 months. i hope this time around my grammar and format are suitable to all readers and keeps everyone interested :) please be aware that these types of things are like therapy to me and the only means of venting/thinking/talking how i usually would in america. hence, i can almost guarantee there will be a sh*t-ton of eff-bombs and beezys thrown around, although i promise to try my best to keep it pg13 ;)

i hope you all know i love you very much and am having the most difficult time saying goodbye. despite that, i know i have made the right decision for myself and am so excited to embark on this amazing journey and experience of a lifetime. thank you all so very much for your unconditional support-please know that it all means the world to me.

<3 yous.
mpaka baadaye