I AM ALIVE.

Hello Everyone!

This will probably be a long blog because the past several days have been so eventful! So be ready! Also I still haven't gotten pictures to post with this, so you will just have to trust that this is me and not some creeper who stole my identity on blogspot.

Ok, so this past weekend I took a trip that horror movies have been based on. 5 friends and I went to Ssese Island. Ssese is an island in Lake Victoria, kind of close to the Tanzanian border, but still in Uganda. We left Friday morning: Joy, Jill, Isaiah, Sam, Brian, and Manny. We took a taxi (i.e. a Ugandan “bus”) to Kampala where we got some food for the journey before meeting out private hire (i.e. an American taxi). Already we were all enjoying our trip and the moral was high. We passed around chocolate cereal and “fun-sized” bananas; Isaiah awkwardly offered food to the driver and we laughed at him.
When we got to the ferry station it dawned on us that we weren’t in Kansas anymore. We bought our 2nd class tickets and wondered if we would be sitting with the goats on the ferry. But it saved us 10,000 shillings (about $5) so we decided it was worth it. While we waited for the ferry the flat screen TV in the waiting room was showing American music videos. And let me tell you, American culture is sick. I was glad to board the ferry when it finally got there because I was just feeling awkward about Madonna making love on the TV to some young punks. Isn’t she an old woman now?

So the ferry; we didn’t sit with goats, we just sat on unpadded benches. We were all still super excited about our weekend trip and being on the water for 3 hours. The ferry ride passed with lots of reading and talking and laughing. Good times. When the ferry finally landed at Ssese Island our first goal was to find a place to stay. This was actually harder than we thought it would be. But we eventually found a man who said he would show us a place with rooms to stay in. So we followed him. This is when the horror movie would have started playing creepy music. We walked into this campsite with oddly colorful buildings randomly placed throughout, and weird polka music sounding from a randomly placed counter (maybe the bar?) where a white rasta man was rocking out to it. Then a strange looking polish lady who loved monopoly greeted us, along with her huge black Great Dane which looked like it had saddle sore on it’s back. You would think at this point we would have fled the scene, but we didn’t. She showed us a rooming option that we could afford and we were all thinking “Ok.” All except Manny. Manny was already walking away saying, “I am not staying here! The black guy always dies first!” We had agreed already that we wanted to stay together, so we politely told the polish lady that we might come back. The look she gave us was a combination of icicles and arrows on fire, and I’m pretty sure she attempted to curse us as we walked away. Luckily we all have the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, and Angles, and Manny to talk some sense into us.

So we wandered across the street to another resort-type place that looked way more normal. We even managed to convince them to give us a family sized room (enough beds for four people, and we would just squeeze in the other two) for $7.50 a night each. This also included breakfast! And Manny agreed that this place was ok. We were still convinced, however, that we were in a horror movie.

We fell asleep that night to Isaiah reading us some scripture, and then some of The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. I fell asleep during that part, but I hear they then played the word association game until everyone fell asleep.

The next day we explored the island. We just walked around most of the day. In the late morning we ran into some kids playing football (i.e. soccer) and the four boys joined in the game while Jill and I chatted awkwardly with some of the girls. The football game evolved into a jump roping game, which was hilarious. And then we said goodbye to go hunt down some grub! On our way to find food we found a sign that said, “Menstruation is a normal body activity” and couldn’t help but get pictures with it.

We eventually found food, and then we wandered back to our room. Jill and I napped, bathed, and read for a while. Who knows what the boys were doing during this time. But we did meet up later and had chips (i.e. French fries), coffee and sodas while we watched the sun set over the island.

It was about an hour later, when it was dark, that we realized we needed dinner and our hotel place wasn’t going to be serving any dinner that night. “Well, I guess we have to go off-campus” someone said. So we did. Slowly and cautiously we wandered across a field to the nearby “town.” We walked into the first dinner place we could find, sat down and ordered up. Matoke and Gnut sauce (a staple food item anywhere in Uganda). We were all kinda freaked out, however, because it was dark and creepy. So we ate and then hurried back to our room. Or we would have it it wasn’t for the fireflies! I have never seen fireflied before, so we stopped in the field to look at them. And then Jill taught us a really fun game called “star-tripping” or star tipping, or star-spinning (whatever). What you do is you star at a star above you and spin for about 30 seconds, then someone shines a flashlight in your face and you fall over. Literally, you cannot stand up because you feel like the ground is going to hit you, or that you are going to be run over by a truck. It was funny. Siblings of mine, you should try this. So we were enjoying this and having fun when Brian stops us and says, “There’s a hippo over there.” We had been talking all weekend about how dangerous hippos are. So we took off running across the field towards the resort place. When we got there we all laughed and mentioned horror movies again.

Then some of us were tired (mainly Brian and I... we must be getting old). So we headed up to go to bed. I got ready for bed for a little bit when suddenly I needed to puke. It was sudden, and it was terrible. I made it to the toilet and up came all my dinner. When my stomach was empty and lay in my bed and started shivering with a fever. It was literally one moment I was fine and the next I wasn’t. All night I shivered with fever, sometimes sleeping, but most of the time awake. In the morning we had to catch the ferry at 8am. When I woke up Jill asked me how I felt. I answered, “Like I have to puke.” Then I got up and puked. Jill said she almost started laughing because it was so matter-of-fact when I said it.

Walking to the ferry was a challenge. I walked slowly and the others carried my stuff. We got to the ferry and claimed a table in first class (this means the seats were padded and there was a T.V. to watch). I was wearing 3 coats (everyone else was in t-shirts) and still shivering a shaking. I probably looked rather pathetic. An hour into the boat ride I was in the same state, so I asked Brian to call one of our program directors because I knew something was wrong. It was arranged that I would meet someone at The Surgery (not to have surgery, it’s just the name of the doctors office we go to in Kampala). The boat ride passed with me shivering, and everyone else watching Shema (look it up, one of the most amusingly bad movies ever made).

So by the time I got to the doctor’s office my fever had broken and I was doing a little better. I even drank a juice box! At the doctor they felt my tummy and asked awkward doctor questions, then they wanted some of my poop. The doctor handed me the smallest plastic tube with a little ice-cream spoon attached to the lid. I thought, “How am supposed to aim for that?” Also hoping I would have some poop in me. I went to the bathroom and managed to squeeze some out, and then I carefully used the ice-cream spoon to scoop it into the little container. I felt victorious to say the least! After about 20 minutes the doctor called me in again and announced, “You have parasites.” What? “Two of them. Giardia and Amoebas.” What? I know about Giardia, it is bad. You don’t want it. But I didn’t have any of the symptoms for it yet. But amoebas are also bad. Basically, don’t get parasites. Stay away from them.

I got the medication to kill the little buggers and then went home. I slept for a while, talked to my mom (Hi Mom!) and tried to eat a little dinner. But I still felt like shit (oops, sorry). Threw up some more before bed and my poor roommate Holly was kind enough to clean it up for me. It was bad. The next day I felt a little better and didn’t throw up my medication, so called for a ride to school. Probably a bad idea, but who can ever tell if an idea is a good one? Plus there was no one at home to talk me out of it and I was lonely. So I went, and basically lay on the couch all day and slept here and there. I waited around until evening time when I could get a ride home. But I started to deteriorate and ended up throwing up the 7 crackers I had kept down that day. I just told people to get me home. When I got home I went straight to bed and took some Dramamine to help me sleep. It doubled in the program because it also settled my stomach! I didn’t really get up until 1 the next afternoon. About 15 hours of sleep did wonders! I ate some rice and bananas and tea, and then I bathed. And then I was tired so I read for a while. But since then I have been doing pretty good! I think I am in the clear, finally, and hopefully most of the parasites are dead now.

K, that was a really long story. I totally understand if you didn’t want to read it all. But if you did congrats!

In other news, I am leaving this Friday to stay with a family in rural Uganda –Capachurwa (I don’t know how to spell it). So you won’t be hearing from me for another two weeks, probably. But I am sure I will have lots to tell y’all. Until then, have a great rest of October!

Love to all!
Joy