Due to power shortages, a VERY SLOOOOOOOOOW internet service IF you want to include pictures (it took me 3 hours to post my last blog) AND the fact that I have been very busy doing whatever seems to be the project of the day, needless to say, I haven’t had any time to blog. Something has happened to my camera and I can’t download pictures onto my laptop anyways so I can’t waste the precious time that I have.
I have 3 more days with the very special people I’ve met but I’ve only taught 1 person how to floss. So, I had to come up with another Plan of Attack. God gave me a GREAT IDEA!!! Have a carnival or a fair. But… there are animals at a carnival and rides at fairs. They don’t know that but I do so I had to think of another name. Since Crazy Jaaja is always doing something bazaar that makes the kids and everyone else laugh, that’s what we are going to do this Saturday!!! The admission price is passing Flossing 101. I will be teaching my teachers tomorrow. Starving Wyclef, Shouting Sharon, Almost Floating Kato, Safe Driver Sheriff (pronounced like Omar Sharif) and Tender Takola will be just a few of my teachers. I will be the Supervisor and hand out Tic Tacs after they pass inspection. There will be stations set up for “Rainbow Toes”, Tattoos, Hula Hooping, Jump Roping and anything else I can think of between now and then. We’ve been inviting others as well and the word gets around very quickly because we all have cell phones. The STAO kids are looking forward to it.
Tomorrow at 6 a.m., my day will start with sewing buttons on Nora’s blouse that is currently soaking in Oxy Clean. The roosters wake me up when it is still dark so I’ll have to wear my “torch” as Grace calls it. It’s a Head Lamp that has been most valuable during the power outages that seem to last all night of which there has been at least 6. Then, I MUST be at “work” by 8:00a.m. California Time to teach my teachers. At 10:30 a.m. California Time, we hopefully will get to have our last Floating Lesson. Nothing is scheduled after that so far but I’ll do something…who knows… whatever … on Uganda Time.
Today, I had to be at STAO by 7:30 a.m. California Time to give a shirt to Paul because he HAD to wear his one uniform to school. He had asked me to sew on his badge because he didn’t have the money to have it done by the ladies that sit on the dirt road with their 75 year old sewing machines. I was ready to go first, so I opened the gate and got the keys from Nelson. “I’m driving!! We must leave NOW, please.” So, I got to drive on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the rode. Nelson had to tell me how fast to go at certain places and when I could go faster. “How do you know how fast you can go?” I asked. Nelson said “You just know”. Did I mention that there are no street signs OR house addresses?? “So…How do you give directions to someone that wants to come to your house”?
Nelson said “Everybody knows how to find everyone”. The major and only “Speed Bump Ahead” sign that I’ve seen is some cut tree trunks by a HUGE speed bump. You are not allowed to take pictures on the major bridge but there’s no sign for that either. You just know. Got the picture yet?? There’s a LOT of polite horn tooting but NO ROAD RAGE. My camera is still able to take pictures and videos so I’ll have lots to share when I get back. Now then, where was I? Oh yes, we made it alive to STAO and gave Paul his shirt, picked up Kato and came home for breakfast. Then we loaded up the straw mats that we purchased the day before from some widows in Buwenge that Nelson visits every week and went back to STAO. Sharon and I walked past the Medical/Dental construction site and took progress pictures of the Dental Bldg. Then we visited a friend of a friend for a nice long visit on Uganda Time. we had to leave to get our Boda Bodas (motor bike taxis) loaded with the mats and ride to another widow camp. I had bought bead necklaces from Lucy last week and owed her some money. THEN, we walked in the BLOODY HOT sun to flag down another pair of Boda Bodas to get a ride back to the “road” that leads to STAO. Takola had invited Sharon and me to her house for a visit. I ended up sharing about my family, my mother’s illness, meeting Nelson and ending up eating fresh mango and papaya for lunch somewheres around 4:00 p.m. All of these stops were on Uganda Time. The difference is that California Time involves using a watch. No one in Uganda wears a watch – including ME. I quit wearing it because I didn’t want a “watch tan”. In fact, I’ve quit wearing bug repellent too because I don’t need it during the day and I have a net around my bed at night to keep the mosquitoes out. The SPF 30 sunscreen w/bug repellent that I bought at REI doesn’t do a thing except make me stickier than I already am. I’m down from 4 showers a day to 2 like everyone else and if I had another week, I would no longer be a “muzongo” (sp?) which means white person. I would be an African. I love this place and these people and I have already told them that I will try and come again next year. It is 12:47 a.m. California Time by my phone so I must go to sleep.
Please pray for the Dental Bazaar. Blessings to all, Crazy Jaaja
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