1 week to go

I have been extremely busy working the past few days so haven’t had time to write a proper blog post.  When I am not working, I am trying to spend every spare minute visiting and playing with the children. I have so much been enjoying my work and visiting with all the people.  I wish there were more hours in the day, because I’m feeling like I’m not getting in enough work or enough visiting! I have been continuing to enjoy the fabulous fruit here. We had mango’s for desert the other night.  All the other times I have had mango it has always been cut up.  This time, it was the entire mango served.  They are very messy to eat.  Wes the architect compared my mango eating technique to gutting a deer.

The past 3 days I have been surveying and today I stayed in Masaka to work on the design of the sanitation system along with Joyce who is a civil engineer from Vancouver. The survey crew has consisted of Patrick, myself, K2, and Pat helped us out with some GPS delineation. Paul who is a Ugandan engineering student that stays with Bill & Ann was able to help us out on Monday so it was nice to once again have an assistant to help keep the snakes away.  Also it is astounding to hear from him about the lack of equipment at his University so it was very nice for him to have an introduction with GPS survey equipment.  Patrick is a very gifted teacher and has a passion for passing along his knowledge, so we have all learned a lot from him.

Yesterday I was helping out with percolation and water testing and during lunch break, I had the opportunity to go to the nearby village with K2 and visit the child he sponsors through Eagles Wings.  Quarich lives with his mother who also looks after 5 additional children.  Two of the girls who couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5 years old were HIV positive. It was really hard to see the detrimental conditions they lived in. It was so encouraging though to see the positive influence that Eagles Wings is having on the surrounding community by providing education to disadvantaged children. They are really providing them with tools through education to empower themselves to finish school which will give them opportunities to better themselves and their families.  To all my readers I want to challenge you to evaluate whether it is feasible to provide $40 a month to provide a child with education and 3 square meals a day.  Quarich who we visited yesterday gets 3 meals a day at school.  The family had no food in the house, so he gets nutrition and love that he otherwise would not get. Visit http://www.eagleswingschildrenvillage.com/ to find out more.

I leave Uganda to return home to Canada one week today.  I am not sure I am ready to leave yet. Although I am looking forward to certain things back home, I know I will really miss a lot about African culture. I know when I return home I will feel displaced, like I belong more in Africa than I do at home. It will take me some time to re-adjust to Western ways. The people here work so hard, and yet I have rarely ever heard anyone complain.  They simply accept the way life is.  I’m not sure how to convey many of the things I have witnessed.  How do you put into words the way it feels to have an HIV positive little girl take your hand and stare back at you with her innocent big brown eyes. 

So in closing, I am going to love every last minute I have left here, but I am looking forward to seeing many of you upon my return.  I’m looking forward to going back to work, and to cuddling with my cute little kitty.  Although I may be departing from Africa in a few short days, I will not leave Africa behind.

 This is Trust who belongs to the house parents of Family 3.  She is so sweet.  Whenever I come in the gate she comes running screaming "Auntie Jaimee" and gives me a big hug.

 This is one of the family 2 children.  He is the keeper of the dogs.  He had just returned from his school holiday and the dog Police was so excited to see him.  The dog was jumping up and down really high.

 Here are some of the school children playing football (soccer) after school.

 Pat and Joyce are seen here performing the perc test.  I also helped out with this.

 Here are me and Joyce with the nursery class.

 We ate lunch with Family 2.  Here is me with some of the girls.  Bushira my sponsor child is in the front, second from left in the photo.

 Joyce brought some beach balls for the nursery class.  They had a blast playing with them.

 Here is K2 who is an eMi intern and Quarich.  It was so special for him to meet his sponsor child.