My little Sister says random stuff!

The most random thign ever said to me ever. Diane and I were watching TV and she just says, "I would rather beat up dad then have sex with mom." I asked no questions.

She's not funny!

I HATE, HATE, HATE guys laughing at unfunny girls just becuase they want to sleep with them. THEY AREN'T FUCKING FUNNY!!!!!!

last memories of Uganda!

As Steven Put it: “Uganda is a country of Randomness!”

In Uganda I found out why the NILE is SPECIAL…

I have learned that if I know a series of grunts, well more sounds actually, and can use an eyebrow raise properly; I can have an entire conversation without ever uttering a word.

I still can’t believe Alia outweighs Farhan. A 122 pound girl shouldn’t have to worry about that!

Echo GET THE BOX!!!!!!!!

If you are in Uganda long enough, being stared at will stop making you feel uncomfortable.

When Ann, Kanayo and I got dropped off about 5 miles from where we were supposed to be it actually wasn’t so bad. On our hike back we saw monkeys everywhere in the trees. Towards the end it was pretty much old hat to go, “Oh there’s another one!”

Logic Problems

“He tries to get out and we draaaag him BACK IN!”

I know now that when you are taking a long bus ride it is only logical to bring your LIVE chicken on with you.

The Cruchy conspiracy theory.

Going away parties….. Especially when the people who the party is for decide not to show up….. tsk… tsk…. Farhan and Alia.

“LOOOOVVVEEE, I am the WINNA!!!” “No! Goodbye lossa!”

The Grace Face:

-Step 1: Look completely miserable
-Step 2: Bite the center of your front lip and crinkle your nose
-Step 3: Continue to look completely miserable.

An Air Force Major and a Mexican attempting to sing Tom Jones’s What’s new Pussy Cat.

Boda Bodas: “Sabo why are you putting ON your helmet?!!!!”

Of course Honey in a Fanta bottle is an antiseptic. Having an infection in my toes so bad I can barely walk and they give me honey!

Flavia’s red Sweater

Farhan’s Mansion. Grrrrrr. Had to hear about it and it’s Ice Cream and oh dare I say it…. HOT SHOWERS!!!

Daydreaming about HOT SHOWERS!!!!
BLOODY ‘ELL!!!!!

Carol’s First Day teaching:
“Rule 1 speak in English. NO! Scratch that! Rule 1 NO BEATING each other while I’m around. Rule 2 Speak in English when I am the teacher. WAIT!!!!! Apply rule 1 even when I’m not around.

LOOK!!!! NO HANDS!!!!!

The affect the office had and how it made the Revolutionaries. First Revolutionaries run away, the Second Revolutionaries make us sit in boring meetings.

“SERIOUSLY guys! PROPER HOSTEL etiquette!”

Herd of cattle taking up one side of a 4 lane divided highway.

“CAAAAAAARROOOLL!!!! There. Is. a. LIZZZZZZAAAAARRRRDDD. IN. OUR. ROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Celine is God!!!
-Kenny Rogers isn’t bad too.

I’m always getting in fights with the P.6 reader: “A WHALE IS NOT A FISH!!!!! IT IS A MAMMAL! GRRRRRRRR! Wait, Do you guys know what a mammal is?”

Half-Six

THE Igloo!
“Oh, Canada”
Daily Cup

I’m an American. I hate showers, and I only wipe down with a napkin.

Grace & Carol Naps.
Since when does it ran longer than a half hour here?
Ø “Shut up Farhan you’re not funny….” “Carol GET UP!” *Blink* *Blink* GLARE “I hate you Inigo. GO AWAY!!!” –Roll over than fall back asleep- *Wake up* “Did I just talk to Inigo?!”

Laying along Lake Buyonyi with Mary a man comes down and lays on the sun bed next to Mary and I. He keeps moving around then says, “I sleep around.”
-Mary and Carol’s faces do not look amused.

LANGUAGE BARRIER!!!!!!!!!!!!

He is the kind of guy who doesn’t have problems because he doesn’t want to have problems.

The way children in Uganda get so excited over being given a book. My mother always wanted that kind of reaction out of her children.

Yeah….. Not so Much.

That bloody turn around outside the Garden City.

I developed a fear of worms I never had at home. They can be anywhere: the water, fruit, your stomach, urinary tract, small intestine, your toes, SWEET TARTS!!!!

Chivalry was invented in MEXICO!!!!

Ugandan time.

Jonathyn with a Y!!!!
For I am Inigo!

Problem Free Furropherry.

ON our crazy ride out to our came site at Lake Buyonyi our driver felt the need to point out that Lake Buyonyi is the deepest lake in Uganda. This was seriously a scary ride up some steep cliffs. My only reaction to him telling us that it was the deepest lake was, “OH good. DEEPEST. LAKE. IN. UGANDA! NO ONE WILL FIND THE CAR!!!!!!!” Then I hugged Grace even tighter.

The Bad Place!

The Lesbian Hooker Kidnapped ECHO!!!!

Rhoda’s Laugh
Brian’s Dancing(Three year old dancing is the best!)
Boris’s hat and comb&mirror
Nurse Ann’s Eternal optimism, “Oh, this is just soooo great!” It was always greatly appreciated.

James, his knife and his food. Oh and you can’t forget the hat!

I should have known better. In order to teach ultimate Frisbee, you should first teach them to throw a Frisbee first.

I have had Meat on a stick shoved into the window of my bus and thought, “Why not?!”

Sometimes watching the crazy people on Oprah can just make your day.

It’s Hokey Pokey! Not Hokey Kokey! Too many British volunteers running around corrupting kids in Africa with their Hokey Kokey!

Jigga Worms.

The Runaways!

Vitamins, Margarine, Aluminum, and Garage. If you are British you are reading each of these words wrong!
-Don’t worry I’m just having a Giraffe.

So a Rich Mexican, a Japanese Girl from Chicago, a Simile Shiite Muslim Canadian couple and a Midwestern Farmers daughter are walking down the road together in Uganda, How many different Races are there? In America there are 4 in Uganda only 1. We are all Mzungus in Uganda.

You give me SWEET!!!!

Netball.

Peace taking a WEEK to put in my thick purple braids, that kind of looked like thin maroon braids.

There is an Irish Pub EVERYWHERE!!!!

Ugandan Shuffle.

Laura and I being crazy Mzungus arguing with a Ugandan Doctor.

“Madam! You are off sides!” “I don’t know what that means, so stop telling me I’m doing it!”

The Land Cruiser

Parcels

Jeeeeeeesus we are Heera!

The Homeless man punching me!

“Hey Pam! I thought of another Musical…..”

Mzungu Corkscrew

No Seriously, Who the Fuck is Alice?!

School fees.

My teaching of Good Sportsmanship was reduced to a chant by the kids:
“Nooo Cheating”
“Nooo Beatings”
“Play by the Rules”

My toes are always red!

Madam China

Lisa’s secret books, looks, and Hand Shakes.

Random Ugandan Guys singing the creepy song “Oh, Carol” to me.

The Huge chunks of Dirt that came out when Erica took out my braids.

Bad Sabo

Dunk, Dunk, Goose

Malaria Test, Pregnancy test…. It’s all the same.

We need to go get the torch to find the parcel, for surely the Parcel will be grand. Getting parcels is brilliant. I never get enough at Uni. I hate minging parcels though, I only want a proper one.

Gossiping with the P.6 and P.7 kids.

Dutchmen on Buses can know a lot about your name.

Rude Rova, Rude Rova

Aunt! Aunt!

Geography, There are about 20 kids in Uganda who know where Lansing is.

THINK FOR YOURSELF!!!!

Boon-ta-koo, Boon-ta-koo

“Madam, We are not cheating.” While holding another students exam.

The Fastest way to get your class to stop talking when you are working on passing drills for basketball is a quick chest pass to the child talking the loudest.

“HERE IS 500 AND YOU KNOW YOU ARE RIPPING ME OFF!”

Biggie Mzungu

Giant!

Godzilla

Hakuna Matata

Hair Straightening being an event.

3 ½ hours at the airport.

Runaway Gracie! You Cry baby!!!!!!

If you are trapped between a hippo and water you are dead.

Exams that ask you to look at the shaded region but yet have NO SHADED REGION!

I’ve seen Fire, I’ve seen rain, I’ve seen HAIL in Africa

Michigan Pride

“Madam it is 2 past 15” “No, it is 15 past 2.”

Chipoti

KEEP THE COCA COLA AWAY FROM HER!!!!

The Muslim triplets

Brisco

Pray to your maker!

Madam High five. high four. high three. high two. high ONE!!!

She always seems nervous.

Emma Just switch me seats!!!!

Shelly’s nasty Nudie Blanket.

Ugandan Elvis.

They’re kicking us out! They are playing Celine Dion!!!!

Alright! We didn’t want you to walk with us anyway!

The sex advice column in the Newspaper.

We can dance. We can dance. We can leave your friends behind. Cuz your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance their no friends of mine.

Yes I googled everyone.

Are we getting any new volunteers?

Richard’s Lugandan Love songs

I LOVE YOU KAMPALA!!!!

One of the Goal posts fell down so we can’t even play soccer!

Annie’s Generosity

Natalie and I had some great gossip fests about celebrities. And then when that was done about other volunteers. First half of my stay I heard no good gossip, right when I leave it got juicy.

Matatu Park.

Hairy Armpits

Inigo- In ya go

“We can dance for you.” “No that would cost money. We don’t have money” “Bye-Bye”

Why is there Talking? There should be no talking!!!!”

Secret Missions

Maybe he/she is on Larium…. Is accepted as an explanation for someone’s crazy behavior.

And Always remember….. MY HEART WILL GO ON

It's all coming back to me nooooooooowwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!

Okay let's just get this out of the way: Riding on a Bus in a Third World Country is not as glamorous as you may think it is. Don't get me wrong it defiantly has it's perks. On an 8 hour bus ride today with, No air conditioning, No leg room, and way too many passangers; we did get to hear A Whole New World on the Radio... not once but twice!!!! With in minutes of each other. And if that isn't a sign of how amazing riding the bus is, a few hours later I got to hear Celine Dion's It's all coming Back and right after that My Heart Will Go On. So Defiantly big perks, just not the glamorfest you might expect.I had two eight hour bus rides full of fun because this weekend was my last weekend in Uganda, and I didn't want to leave without having seen the country side. Grace, Catherine, Alison, Mary, Natalie, and I decided to go to Lake Buyonyi. It is right on the Uganda/Rwanda/Congo Border. So Grace and i figured it is like going to Rwanada but not as Expensive, and like Going to Congo but not quite as Dangerous.It was amazing. I pretty much just sat by the lake the whole time. It is up in the mountains and everything too. Grace and I did try to be over achivers and do something, but that lasted literally baout 20 minutes. We tried going Canoeing and it is complete madness to canoe in a dug out canoe. We just kept spinning in circles. And every time we started spinning in a cirlce we just quit and would sit there. There also happened to be a bunch of people sitting on the shore watching us and just laughing. So we eventually just quit for good and land next to the lake. There was no sun and it was chilly, so why we spent the day laying around nobody knows. The place also had Satelite TV so we were able to watch some of the Olympics with a Bunch of Aussies. I have never watched without a bunch of Americans cheering on all the same people I am. On Sunday everyone but Mary and I decided to go back to Ndejje Village, but Mary and I wanted one more day without all the pollution. It was really nice, we ended up going for a hike. And these children were begging for Pens and sweets and Money. ONe boy was really quite smooth, telling us he didn't want anything he just wanted to walk with us. And then he suggested that the children dance for us and we flat out said, "No, That would cost us money. We DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY." He literally stopped walking with us then and said "Bye Bye" No tact at all. Other kids tried to get us to go swimming with them. We think so that way they could take our bags while we are in the water. So they all went running into the water trying to get us to join. And once they were all in Mary and I just took off. Later that night we watched the Men's 4 X 1 freestyle in swimming. And it was so said the Aussies finished 6th and Americans 3rd. Pitiful!!!! But South Africa totally deserved it. South Africa's Version of Sports Center is Terrible by the way.Today our driver to get us back into Kabale to catch our bus home never showed up so this group called Overlanders gave us a ride in. They ride around in a truck/Winnibago/Semi/bus. It is the biggest thing I have ever seen. Mary and I ended up being in a seat that didn't attach so when we hit a Ugandain Pothole we went flying. So we have been initiated into the Overlanders. Though the bus ride stinks, the view was awesome!

Feeling like I'll never be clean....

I have this nice little dirt ring around my hand from where my thumb and my fingers come together. And my heels are always a constant shade of red. And now that I have braids I can't wash my head I guess. They just gave me this stuff to spray in. So the one thing I could count on makeing me feel clean (clean hair) regardless has been taken away from me. But the worst part of it all..... Iha ahve gotten used to it. Me the queen of no fewer than three showers a day has excepted that being dirty is alright. I know the "tan" I have aquired here will all come off when I get my first hot, steaming bath.Oh wonders of wonders!!!!Yesterday we were having one of our really boring ACF meetings. Which pretty much consists of Rev. Jim talking and these two revolutionists; Emma and Shelly. They are terrible. But there was a big bug on the table and Grace started freaking out over it. So I told the bug to pray to his maker and took a knife and cut off his head. We heard the crunch we saw the head go. So it was grossing us out so we put a napkin over it. About 15 minutes later, THE BUG CRAWLED OUT FROM UNDER THE NAPKIN!!!!!!! What kind of freak bug does that. That broke up our whole end of the table in to histaria. That is far scarier than those freak Flordia bugs. I guess I should have guess AFRICA bugs would be freakier than Flordia bugs. And last night a cockroach was climbing on Pam's Face!!!! AHHHHH so scary it was under her Mosquito netting. My middle fingers hurts. Because yesterday at school when I was telling a little boy to give me the broken piece of mirror he had in his hand becuase he might hurt some one,he stabbed me. Nothing serious but it freaked me out. I'm not a fan of being stabbed in general. Just call me up tight. But I especially don't like me stabbed by a little boy with a borken piece of mirror. I ended up getting it away from him and putting it where he couldn't get it or any of the other kids.Dang kids!Today was Laura and Pam's last day of teachign at the nursery, so we had a party for the kids. Everything we gave them they found to beat the other children. suckers and even unsharpened pencils can be used as weapons when children want to use them that way. But I did dance with one of my favorites to Usher. He is a dancing man. But he has developed this new dance that he really gets into and it involves kicking out to the sides. So if any children are near he doesn't noticew but he totally takes them out. ONe kid stuck his sucker in my mouth before I even had a chance to say no, so then all of the children wanted to. There are always going to be highs and lows of being around children all day.Low: Being Stabbed with a MirrorHigh: Dancing with a three year that loves nothing more than to dance

Craziness

Yesterday I was writing my journal entry, and fotuantly I save them periodically because the power went out. No no no not just at the computer lab, nope in ALL of Kampala. How come I don't get a I survived the black out of '04 t-shirt. I mean I'm in the only major city in the whole country. In America itends everything in Uganda it's like, "Oh well" It's not like there are an stop lights or anything so traffic could still go. So my longest day since I have been here was on Friday. There is a little boy named Mark at the Anna and Tony nursery. He has had a really bad ear infection and Laura, Pam, and I think he has HIV. So on Friday Laura and I took the little boy to a clinic towards Entebbe called Mild May's. It was complete chaosoutside because there were riots going on all along Entebbe road, which is th one we were on. Because some politican was coming back from the U.K. after being gone for 3 years. So that was already a real hastle. And finally after waiting for three hours w got to go see a nurse. She then proceeded to tell us that they have a policy not to test children for HIV if their mother hasn't been tested. That was not good enough for us because we had explained the whole situation on the phone the da before and they had said it would be fine. So she sent us to the head nurse. Who acted like we were stupid and how could they test the boy when we couldn't even answer the question if he was Catholic or Protastant. Christain was just not a good enough answer. She eventually left us for a long while and came back and said the doctor would not test him. Well that wasjust not good enough for us. We were going to talk to the doctor. The Nurse led us to the doctors door. And line or queues or whatevr are an novel idea here. So we evetually after being cut a few imes just we literally outside his door and wouldn't even let him out of his door after the pactient before us left. He wouldn't do it either so we know he had some good stories to tell of two crazy muzungus in his office that day. His answer was not good enough for us either so we ended up seeing the director of the clinic. We couldn't get our way. Just wasn'tgoing to happen but we put up a good fight. And we did get him medicinefor his ear..... Just stinks. A whole day and we didn't really seem to help him in any way. We defiantly tried though. And we have gotten his mother to agree to be tested. But if she will show, is defiantly a question mark.Africa is an ineresting place. It is a rare day when a Marroon haired American can meet an Iraqi ex-patriot man and discuss their dislike for Bush together on a Matatu(mini Bus) in Uganda. Always a interesting occassion. But I didn't know he was an Iraqi and he didn't know I was an American. He just assumed I was from the Netherlands, which was very weird. I have that look about me.

It's weird how things can change completely in a short amount of time. Last night I realized there are only 5 other volunteers from when I first got to Africa who are still left. It is weird being one of the "old" volunteers. Grace and I took 6 of the new volunteers into town today and it was all of their first Matatu ride. It such old knoiwledge to us at this point. We know where to go we don't try to get off early. when walking into town I know where the homeless people that'll punch you are and where the extra crazyies hang outs are. And I finally have the hang of crossing the road in a third world country. It goes like this, Look both ways... In uganda Left then Right so if you are American it will take a while to adjust, start creeping a little more and more into the road but not alot so if a car or a boda boda comes out of no where you can jump back onto the road, Then When it looks like it MIGHT be clear PRAY TO YOUR MAKER and run like hell!!!!!!! You just have to have faith you'll be alright, otherwise you are forever going to be on whatever side of the road you are on. I finally stopped worring about car accidents because you never really saw any and then yesterday a volunteer named Jen saw Rev. Jim get into a car accident outside of Barclays when she was getting some money. So now I'm back to fearing for my life. Yesterday was probably the longest day I have had since I have been here.

Focus on the small things...

Oh, man there is a problem when there are 20 women and a postman living and working together. The women here since there has become an estrogen influx have become quite irrational. I mean I guess I figured there would be corruption with stuff here. We are in Bloody AFRICA!!! There is a lot of stuff going on here that a lot of volunteers are not happy about, but we just have no level headed man here to keep us a little under control. A lot of the volunteers came in here thinking they were going to be making BIG differences. I think it is important to focus on the little things you can do. THere was a volunteer here named Annie and that is all she did was focus on the little things and I think she made a lot of difference here. I'm just doing what I can. I'm really happy here and working at the school despite a lot of things that are going on. Yesterday was a really hard day for me because I came to class, where I usually have about 25 students and when I showed up yesterday I had ten. They said the other students had been dismissed for school fees. I was not happy with that because 4 of my 5 best students had been dismissed because of school fees. And it was the four girls and between 11-13 here is a really crucial time for the girls here and they need to stay in school. But I just have to keep going and doing what I can. Try to help those that still have sponsorship to the school and see if there is anyway I can help those who don't have it. I really am trying to just make a difference by doing small things. There is a worker at the compound where I stay. She is Rev. Jim's sister-in-law. She works for pretty much nothing. But she is absolutely the nicest most selfless person I have ever met. Total sweetheart. She is putting herself through beauty school so someday she can move to Kampala with her daughter Love and start her own Salon. But she wanted to have practice on a Mzungu's(white person) hair. She was like Carol, please let me braid your hair. I kept trying to tell her I really, really didn't want it braided, but she really wanted the practice. So I finally agreed as long as she made my extensions, purple. Cuz we know how I love to have purple hair ;) So I kept repeating to her and making her repeat it to me, "Royal Purple. It looks more blueish then reddish. PURPLE. Say it with me PUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRPPPLE..... NO RED TINT! NONE!!!!!" And when I was in town yesterday we passed a woman with purple braids and one with maroon braids I knew which one I wanted and which one I would get. So right now half of my head has maroon braids. I'm wearing a bandanna to hide the fact that the top half of my head has no braids. I just couldn't fight her on the color. and I was wearing my good ole Central Michigan PJ shirt I always wear and everyone kept commenting on how my braids matched my shirt....(Just guess what CMU's colors are, YEP MAROON and GOLD)... Peace isn't asking for money she just wants practice but I am going to give her some money, because she is going to have to sell her cow to help afford to go to beauty school so I'm hoping I can help out some by paying her. Just keepin' with the small things. I mean I really, really, really don't want braids. and my head hurts really bad. And I'm going to look like a sorority girl who went to Bermuda for a week and wants everyone to ask where she went, cuz she has braids. BUT!!!!!! It is helping Peace get practice, and helping get her out of her brother-in-laws house and letting her provide a better life for her daughter. So it really is all about the

Runaways

So at ACF there has been alot of Negative vibes going around. That in the past few days have all but disappeared and it has become a very pleasant atmosphere. Well let me start from the begining.......There have been two groups, well kind of three. There was this Group called Jonathyn's Group, then Kind of my group(We didn't have a leader to specify the name by), and then people who were left overs from former groups. Well, Jonathyn's group is completely crazy. And they think they are revolutionaries and they all live in a seperate place from most of the volunteers. Dave called it the Revolutionaries house and we ragged on Inigo forever cuz he tried to be in with that group for a weekend, because the leader was his roommate, then he realized they were completely crazy. Jonathyn's Group have many people come in and out of their group, but within the past week most everyone realized how comepletely crazy they are. And that they do absolutely no work what so ever. Not just that they do no work but they have made doing no work an art form. Well, on Saturday Grace and I came back from town, both of us are really sick so it was perhaps the longest walk ever. On our way up we saw the sole members of the Jonathyn following in a car because Jonathyn was leaving for Airport Grace and I didn't think anything of it and waved good-bye. A few hours later while sitting around hearing about Inigo going to see Gorrillas near the Congo Nikki came up and dropped the news on us. Alana and Sylvia the two followers of Jonathyn had not just been taking him to the airport, but were infact running away from ACF! Two Grown ass women ran away from a volunteer organization in Africa! Completely crazy. But it has actually been really good. The atomosphere is completely lifted. I mean there is one group that thinks they are above everyone but they still do some work and they aren't overall mean like the old Jonathyn Group! Weird how ahving two adults run away from an organization can actually strengthen it. Bust me up. Ahhhhh.... After all the craziness has blown over, I still had to take Inigo to the airport this morning. Really cool guy, for his last day yesterday went shopping for his family and friends at home and lunch. I didn't have to spend a shilling, and we got a private hire back. Such a good lunch he took me for, PORK CHOPS!!!! YUM!!!! Something different at least. I looked back in my journal from when I first met him and I said that, "The Mexican boy arrived today. He doesn't really talk much and of course I had to bombard him with questions. Poor kid doesn't know what he has gotten himself into." Yeah that no talking thing has defiantly made a 180. But Grace thought I was a really quite loner when she first met me, so first impression here are nothing. When Inigo and I got back last night Grace was even worse than when I had left that afternoon so we ended up taking her to "The Surgery" that night. She does not have Malaria, a Malaria test looks ALOT like a pregnancy test. And we are in Africa so she prolly has Malaria but is not pregnant. The doctor couldn't really figure out what was wrong, so he gave her cough medicine even though she said she didn't have a cough and sent her home. aaaaahhhh.... for we are in Africa. My toe is falling off Grace is dieing and the doctor sends me home with Honey and Grace with Cough Syrup. So when you read guide books on Africa and they say the rainy season starts in lets say SEPTEMBER and you figure, "oh, that's fine I leave in AUGUST...." still pack something for how incredaibly cold it can get and at least pack something for the rain. It is hard to explain how the set up is for dining at Rev. Jim's but basically we eat outside under this tin roof. three of the sides can be blocked in. But, Tin Roof's make ALOT of noise when it rains... but you can only imagine the noise if it is HAILING!!!! yes that is right. Today for about an hour we all got trapped in this dining area at lunch time because it wasn't only down pouring, but their was a significant amount of HAIL coming down. Fairly big pieces of Hail. And I had to sit there and watch my window blow open and all this hail go into my room, I finally got some nerve and rain to my room through the hail to shut my window. But I only had hail come in my room the people in the tents had to watch their living spaces collapse. After the storm was over A bunch of trees were knocked over and stuff. It really was like a hurricane for a while, or a typhoon. Oh man thank goodness we had 49 cards in a deck so at least we could get a game of Cards going. Yeah, yeah... which card game? I mean CARDS. They only have one card game in uganda, a bunch said it is like Crazy 8s, but to me it seems alot like Uno. Well I'm having fun other than having to figure out where I can buy rain gear and having to pay a bunch of docotrs bills. Ugh.... Oh but to be in Afirca!!!!

You need to look smart!

So here how well you dress is very, very important. And especially how clean your clothes are. But most of these people are wearing old hand-me-downs from The States. The driver of my Matatu today had on a Ohio State Shirt. A nice one, yes. But! I know he is know secret Buckeye fan just chillin' in Uganda. And there is one woman that is always weraing a B93 shirt. I always try to explain to her that her shirt comes from where I'm from. And she either doesn't get it or doesn't care, prolly the latter of the two. But like Rev. Jim had on a Donna Karan shirt. Lisa ragged on him and asked if he was a Donna Karan kinda guy. None of them know what they are wearing. Although I do love the abundance of Jennifer Lopez CLothing. HAHAHAHAHA There was a girl competing for Miss Uganda who came on for her TV interview in a Rose Bowl Sweatshirt. Why not? I think I need to get a JLO skirt and go buy a really cool DMX shirt. Then I'll look Smart.

What is the hurray?

I love teaching the kids I honestly do. But I can't stand these African teachers they are terrible! They are really ever in class much less the school and when they are they knock the kids around. Fortunantly I havn't seen any of that because I have a big problem, I don't know ho to keep my mouth shut. My roomie, Kelly, was in class at a diffeent school than what I teach at and I guess becuase the kids were being a little rowdy they Caned each and everyone of them in front of her and she didn't know how to get out of there. Kelly has prolly had it the worst out of everyone her for her teaching experience. The teacher of her class always stays in there and won't let her teach how she wants. I mean this girl works hella hard she is always staying up late in our room coming up with Lesson plans. Poor thing. I guess she got in a fight with her teacher the other day because the teacher was like no you can't work on the alphabet with these kids they need to be working on Nouns, and Adverbs and everything. She just lost it she was like they are 5 year olds!!!!! They need to know the alphabet before they can know Nouns!!!! I mean honestly I know I didn't know what a noun was at 5 and English is my first language!At the school I teach at it isn't that the teachers won't let us do the lesson plan it is that there is no lessons, and no teachers ever! ON ednesday I ahve afternoon class which none of the other volunteers ever have and I showed up after lunch to find NO TEACHERS at the school. None of them had bothered to come back from lunch. I was suppose to just have p.4 for P.E. but I ended up letting everyone out to play sports. And the day before Inigo and I had gotten in trouble for letting out P.7 to play with P.6. There had been no teacher in P.7 so we just let them come out with us and then they got rounded up and we sent back to their room and we were yelled at for letting the kids out when they have Social Studies and they all went back to the room and you wanna know something? THEY STILL HAD NO TEACHER!!!!! Weird, weird weird. And yesterday when Bethany, Josh, and Grace took me to the hospital, Ida a new girl was the only volunteer left at Anna and Tony's. And I guess not long after we left all the teachers decided they were going to take the rest of the day off and go into town and just left Ida their ALL BY HERSELF!! Afirca is a very crazy and corrupt place. And Uganda is a very friendly country compared to alot of the others I couldn't even imagine. I just get so frustrated that every child isn't given a good education. Its a shame these teachers are so bad and corrupt and they have been trying to hinder what the volunteers do. I'm just going to keep plugging along and doing my thing and enjoy the kids and sports and everything. Grace and I took bethany to the Airport last night. Grace and I were like super sad when we got in the car. Cuz their has kinda been a slipt in the volunteers and like I guess like my group(ish) will all be gone by next Thursday except for Grace and I. All my boys will be gone by Monday, actually all boys will be gone except for this gutt Farhan and (coolest Ismaili Shiite Muslim Couple I know. Alright ya caught me, they are like the only ISM couple I know, hahahaha and they are Candian!)already left, We took Kanayo to the Airport on Tuesday, Bethany last night. David left by bus to go to Kenya to travel with his sisters, so I have no one to sing My Fair Lady songs. Dave from San Fransico, Not Gay. Sorry inside joke. James is leaving Saturday and so is Josh. So I have no one to apply honey to my wounds. I had to rag on James last night and tell him he wasn't going to make a vry good doctor since he had never learned how to put honey on an infected wound. HAHAHAHA Come on I mean at a "proper" Medical school that is like what ya learn in your first semester. Echo is leaving next Wednesday and Kelly is leaving on Thursday. Inigo is leaving Monday morning, but it sucks cuz we were going to go do some safari or someting cuz he has loads of money and is sponsoring me, but he got the last Gorrilla Permit for the Month of July so he is on the Congo Border(YIKES!) right now looking at Gorrillas. He has the same camera as me but no Zoom lense so I told him he had to go and lent him my lense. We have already agreed if he gets carried off by a gorrilla not to be sad but to rejoyce in the fact that he had a badass death. HAHAHA Crazy Mexicans! Good thing I'm here to volunteer and I actually like doing things on my own so It isn't tramatic that people are leaving. And I still got Crazy to be cynical with me. HEEHEE And of course I still got the kids. They are awesome even though they all are a bunch of cheaters. I mena do I need to teach them how Middle Schoolers in America cheat so they don't get caught? I mean cuz I can. :)

Did ya'll know honey is an antiseptic?

So ya, I wouldn't be Carol Bontekoe if I didn't recieve some kind of injury and If I didn't get sick. And I'm in Africa so of course I had my first hospital visit today. Right before I went in the Nile to go Rafting I got a cut on my foot. I didn't even notice till Farhan pointed out it was bleeding. I didn't worry about it at the time and have been cleaning it out ever since. But the past couple of days the infection spread or something, maybe just got a new infection on my on on the toe right next to it. So I haven't really been able to walk for the past couple of days. And last night Peace, one of the workers at the compound and James got in a fight over my foot. James is pretty much a very jitter medical student from the U.K. and Peace is like very, very, protective of me. So when James would poke at it and I would wince in Pain, Peace would just put her hand in frnt of him and not let him touch it. But it pretty much came down to that I had a really bad infection and needed to see a doctor. So today Josh, Grace, and bethany(on her last day in Africa) took me to THE SURGERY. YES!!! I KNOW!!!! THAT IS THE NAME OF THE HOSPITAL!!!!! I had to have people come with me just to make sure They don't get excited and try to amputate my toes, I wanna keep them. So they cleaned out my toes with like Hydro..... Oh wait I'm not Diane and I did terrible in Chemistry. I have no idea what the name is. And then for the antispetic they put honey on the wounds. hahahaha You know you are in Africa when honey is usd for an antispetic. And know I can be a pet for all the nursing majors and med studnts here and they can clean out and address my wounds. After we went to the Surgery the only way back into the city was on Boda Bodas which are like these crazy scooters that weave in and out of traffic. I swore I would never ride one but I didn't really hav a choice. I was panicked the whole time, but fortunantly Bethany was on the Boda Boda with me. I mean Crazy!!!! I was holding onto our driver so tight. And I got panicked when he suddenly for no reason just put on his helmut. All I could think was the end was near. Well I have like no money left. The doctors visit pretty much ook it all. Dang Mzungu doctor. I got a statement for my insurance but that won't help me for a while. Dang it!!!!! I always gotta have something weird going on with me. I miss my money... But hopefully I'll be able to walk in a little while. They said if it isn't better in a week we would go from there. NOT ME!!!!! I'm not going anywhere from there. I'm going home to good doctors!!! hahahaha Why wouldn't it happen I'm in Africa.Oh, yeah Coach Amy and Will have snuck away to Wisconsin. Got a nice little Email from Caoch Amy telling me. Don't know why they couldn't have told us ummmmm like a month and a half ago when we found out. Weirdos. Oh and know what I got to watch yesterday. A very old rerun of Oprah!!!! Oh so nice. It was like the Valentines day episode. Rev. Jim thinks Oprah is Echo's really close friend and one of the guards at the compound looks just like Taye Diggs and he thinks I know him. HAHAHAHAHA Right I'll tell Taye ya said hi right after we call Oprah!!Oh, these guys on the comp next to me asked if I was Aulstralian and I pretty much have taken up the philosophy of saying I'm Canadian, so I don't get cussed out for How bad Bush is with Foriegn Policy, and how Evil everyone thinks he is. Never had a problem cuz no one knows anything about Canada, not these guys. They are studying how Canada Exports and Imports Fruits at this very moment. They started quizzing me on where Fruits in Canada come from. HAHAHA I don't know where all of America's fruits come from, much less Canadas.... They are mostly from Belize and Costa Rica, in case you were curious.

JEEEEEsus, we are HEEERA!!!!

Last night ALia and Farhan went back home, to Canada. They are so lucky they pretty much hung out with me all day yesterday after missing their own going away party. I ended up going to the Airport with them to drop them off. Classic Carol Bontekoe just make jokes and be stupid so it isn't a big deal to say goodbye. Farhan and I maqde friendship braclets on our way to the airpot out of this plastic string stuff. The one I made him is purple and black and going everywhere and not tight or anything and the knot I tied on it is huge.But of course i had to say what I know my mother would have said, IT HAS CHARACTER!!!! And the one he made me is orange and Purple, total Phoenix suns colors going on. But of course Farhan the Future Brain Surgeon that he is, made my braclet like perfectly. It looks so good. But I would hope a future Brain surgeon could have enough Dextarity(sp) to make a friendship braclet. But today when I went to play with the kids at the nuresry they were trying to steal my braclet. I had to shake kids off of me just to keep it. And then some of my older students, were telling me that if they wanted it they could steal it. I guess I'll be walking with my left hand in my pocket for a while. After I got back last night Laura asked if I wanted to go and hold orphan babies with her today. And of course I totally agreed to it. So I'll be holding some babies in a little while.... You know me so nurturing. heehee. Went and watched my schools choir practice today. It was out in the woods. Pretty neat to see. I really enjoyed it.

going away party

You gotta love when you have a going away party for two people and they don't even show up. It's alright because Inigo, Echo, Bethany, Grace, Kelly, David and I DID show up for Farhan And Alia's going away party. I mean how do you not show up to your own party? Well not so much party as going to a intersting dance club in Kampala. We had enough fun for the both of them.Lately at the compund we have a had a little girl Rionni. She is adorable we brought he from Kontabo to have some tests done and get some medicine. Her father has already died and her mother is dieing from AIDS and she is HIV postive. We also found out she had TB. But we got her some medicine and we even saw her smile yesterday. It ment alot to all of us. And the other day, one of like our favorites, cuz she is sassy, was telling me about her mother's death. I mean I am having a great time and trying to do the best I can with these kids but sometimes it will start to feel so normal here and then you have all that kind of stuff and you remember this isn't how it is at home. ALthough the other day I totally had to rip on my P. 6 English class. B/c I asked them to write me a book report about like these little books so I could see how much they comprehended, and they literally took plagerism to a new level. They copied word for word from the book. I was like, "Regina you swear.... SWEAR!!!!! You didn't just coppy the book!!!?!?!?!" And she was all, "No Madam no!!!" So I started reading her report to her out loud and then started reading the book. Word for word the same. Then the students turned on me and were like "Madam you told us to copy the book!" I kno what I said and the assignment I gave and never once did I say copy the book. hahahaha Frickin' kids. How can be people teachers for like 30 years?!?!?!?!

oooooohhhh.... HOT SHOWER!!!!

My roomie Kelly is from this tiny little village in Nothern England, I think about 100 people live there. And she rarely ever drives more than five minutes from her home, and she din't go to University. So this is by far her first like big life experience. So she has been really missing home, and she has been ahving some problems with the politics the teachers at the school play. So last night 8 of us decided we need to spend the night way from the compound and take some HOT showers. It was really nice. The hostel was only about 3 US dollars, but we got to take a HOT shower. So completely worht the money!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!! Never thought I would appericiate a hot shower so much. Oh and just so everyone knows, they do not except American bills older than 1996 in Uganda. In case you are ever in the neighborhood. And Chemical Bank ATM cards don't really work...... :) Got it all fixed now though.

Bleeding heart Liberal

Sometimes it gets hard here realizing that there are so many things you want to do, and sometimes there is just essentially nothing you can do about it. PLus if you give to one you have to give to all of them. Orphans are trained to basically attack Muzungus(white people) to guilt trip them to give them money. One kid yesterday was tapping on my window of the Taxi for a half hour. That was really rough to ignore. It gets hard sometimes, but it also reminds me why I'm here. I wanna help kids learn English(Here knowing English means Jobs) and know that they can take care of themselves. There are just so many Children everywhere here. And America's poor and Ugandas poor are no where near the same. Also what they consider middle class, No where near even our lower end middle class people. Right now the compound I'm staying in is in a "Middle Class" Neighborhood. Yet most of the people don't have electricity or can speak English, and children only have 2 outfits...maybe. Even the compound where I'm staying, is like the nicest place in the area and we pretty much never have running water or electricity. Yesterday it was raining pretty hard and we were in the dining area which is away from the house. So Grace wanted a Banana but didn't want to go in the rain so I dashed to the house grabbed a banana and slipped in the mud. So Rain, is more running water then we have had like this whole time. So I took a shower in the rain. Shaved my legs, washed my hair.... The works. It was quite enjoyable. Sometimes you just have to improvise if you ever wanna feel clean here. Other than the little kid knocking on my window forever yesterday I haven't had too many incedents with the homeless. I did have a homeless man push me in the arm(not to hard just enough to shock me) because I wouldn't give him money. I figure it is Karma coming back for me, for last year. Outside of the V&A musuem I thought there were a bunch of garbage bags so I ran up and Kicked them. Needless to say That was like someones home, And they were in. It has been weird we get politcal news in very choppy and from all the new volunteers comign in all the time and some of the Uganda newspapers. Oh, Did Bush Really say the Election should be moved back? That is messed up if he did. Absolutely none of the volunteers from other countries have one nice thing to say about Bush. They are always telling me that he is the worst thing for our country in foriegn relations aspect. Well.... come on. I could have told them that. None of the volunteers here are conservative. Which Suprised me cuz some are pretty big, Stirct Christains and even they think Bush has gone over board. We'll See how this Edwards thing affects Kerry. none of us could act to suprised. There really isn't any other high profile Democrat it could have been. If any other big news is going on in The States make sure to let me know, that way I can bring it up at the dinner table and get everyone going. Here alot of people yell Bush at me instead of AMerican. I mean... I'm more than fine being called Muzungu or Mama but, Bush?!?!?!?! No thank you! heehee ya know I love even the most conservative of ya'll... Even you Betsy!!!!!!!!!

So this one time I was swimming in the Nile....

So Rafting the Nile was on Saturday. IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!! No matter what I write about it it won't describe the expeience I had. I ended up going with Kanayo, Farhan, Echo, Alia, and David. We had to do a last minute replcement of Inigo cuz he went to some Island in Lake Victoria without telling us!!! But David wasn't as bad as we had for seen him being, although, he did push me out of the raft on a class five. But more about that in a bit. So on the bus ride to the Nile there was this CRAZY Kiwi guy named Shane giving us all of our insturctions about what will happen once we get to the Nile. I had a feeling he would end up our guide and you wanna know something.... He totally was! He was awesome though, very energetic and obviously loves what he is doing. I got hurt on the practice flip before we even got anywhere near a rapid. Farhan fell on me when we did a practice. like literally right on my head.... Good thing we all were wearing helmuts. We had 4 CLass five rapids. With a Bunch of 3s and 4s. We all ignored the wishes of Echo and decided we were going to be hardcore and try to hit all the hardest rapids and everything. On the very first Class five we were going to try to hit the "G Spot" on it. And we most defiantly hit it! But when we hit it David and I were in the very front and he punched me at the same ime I seemed to lose my balance and we hit the "G Spot". So needless to say... I fell out. But Still had my oar and was holding onto the boat like we were told to do. But I got kinda caught under the boat and it just kept pushing me further and further under. so I just let go and rode my oar like it was a witch's broom. It was pretty cool and I eventually got picked up by the safty boat. I guess Alia had been thrown out too but she held on I didn't even know I wasn't the only one till after the fact. The second class five we rode in sideways and I totally thought we were going to flip but we came out fine. After the first two class fives we were the only ones not to flip. And we kinda wanted to.In the very begining we had alot of rapids relly quick and then the second half we had some defiant down time, where we were just floating down the Nile looking at all the beautiful sights. I wish I coulda brought my camera on the boat. Some defiant NG type pics. Like we floated past fisherman and everything and women washing their clothes. We saw Crocodiles early on and then never saw any when we were just floating. It was cool though because we were able to jump out and go for a swim in the water. We all were looking at each other while we were swimming and were like, "Do you realize we are going for swim down the Nile? This is Awesome!!!" It was cool because there were three other rafts with us, and it was people from all over the world. I believe the few of us that were Americans in my boat wer the only AMericans. There was an Irish boat that was getting brighter and brighter red every time we saw them. I kept picking on them everytime we saw them, "Oh the wee boat, full of wee Lepruchans. I-diddly-dee-dee-dee" All in good fun. After all this floating and good fun we hit another class 5 rapid. This one we were ment to flip..... But we didn't. We hit it exactly in the right place literally our raft went veritcal straight up into the air I was falling back on Farhan and then....... We just came down and rafted through the rest of the rapids. I saw David next to me, felt Farhan behind me, then saw Echo out of the corner of my eye and was like, OMG we made it. We were about to do our oar high five when Farhan asked, "Where's Alia?" We all turn around the whole back half of our boat had been thrown out. There was no Kanayo, ALia, or Shane. Everyone else went t pull Alia and Kanayo back in the raft, and Shane came swimming up to me so I was like, "I got your vest!!!!! I'll pull ya in!!!!" And he just grinned at me and brushed me off and pulled himself into the boat. I really was trying to be helpful. So we had done no flipping. As David put it, "Dang us for just being to darn compitent" After that we went through some fours and had to get out and walk the rafts around this crazy CLass 6. And then you had the option of getting back in to do this CLass 5 that is barely missing being like a class 6. It is called the Bad Place. Alia and Echo opted not to go. Us other 4 were like we paid to do this and we are going to get our moneys worth. And we wanted to flip just once. It was crazy..... All I remember is this wall of white bubbles and then not knowing where I was up, down, whatever. Then I got kicked in the head by Frahan and assumed we were flipped, so I let go of the rope, did the witch's broom thing again and I fianlly settled down and came to the surfice, looked around and saw I head been sept the farthest, but I located Kanayo, Farhan and David, Then saw Shane riding on top of the flipped raft like he was a cowboy. After wards we went up to the bus got changed took a couple pics and enjoyed comparing stories with the other rafters. On the bus ride back there was this Dutch guy that I started chatting it up with and found out he lives on like Bontekoe lane or Street or whatevr they call them over there!!!! he was like, "yeah BOON-TI-KOO is a very cool name. There are two kinds of cows, Black Spotted cows and Brown Spotted Cows. BOON-TI-KOOS are the brown spotted cows. He told me Bontekoe isn't a Freis name at all though, That it is very Dutch so he couldn't figure out why people in Friesland would have a Dutch name. When he was writing don his info to give me he wrote me not about a children's book. Of course I forgot to bring it so I could get the spelling right but there is a story called something like Scheepjongens van Bontekoe. I guess there ws a famous boat or sailor named Bontekoe or both. Very cool though. I'll try to get the spelling right later.Played some more basketball with the girls yesterday, while I had Inigo and David play Football(Soccer) with the boys. The girls we're like tackling each other and totally cheating. I started yelling at them I was like, "You can't tackle each other and you need to stop cheating!!!!!!" Then they accussed me of cheating and of not knowing the rules. So I just took the ball told them that I had been playing Basketball for 15 years and they ahd been playing for a week. So I knew the rules. I need to go back and apologize to teachers I have had in the past and driven crazy. I now defiantly know why some of them were Crazy!!!!!!! I really don't like teaching English Comprehension!!!! I don't understand the stories they read. Worst written text books ever!!!! How can I teach it if I don't understand it myself. I'm going to turn into this other volunteer Grace soon and just be like, "WHY IS THERE TALKING?!?!??!?!?!?!?! THERE SHOULD ONLY BE WRITING!!!!!!!!!!" I'll have to find some other way to teach English...... Thinking.... Thinking..... Thinking......

Come talk to me

Another game I'm taking internationally.... Spoons. Last night at the compound some of us volunteers played Spoons with some of the orphans; Love, Hope, and Freedom. I know they sound like Hippie's kids names but it seems to be the Chirstain names the give the corphans here. It was alot of fun but sometimes they would slam down their cards as they passed them so all of us volunteers would dive for the spoons and no one would even have a four of a kind. It was alot of fun and the kids seemed to like it. Defiantly easy enough card game for anyone to get the hang of. Love kept trying to put a knife in the spoon pile, she is only 6 but we know she knows not to do that. That is a little too extreme of a version of Spoons. Today Ann(ONe of the "Mom" volunteers) was taking Kanayo and I to have lunch in Jinja, about a hour and a half away, to have lunch at the source of the Nile. But, it didn't exactly turn out how we planned. We had told the bus driver to drop us off at this National Park. Well, he must not have known exactly where that was so he dropped us off about an hours walk past where we needed. Once we realized we weren't where we needed to be we head back up the road. We saw TONS of Monkeys just chillin in the trees next to the woods. It was very cool. THey were just hanging out and we had been reading how hard it was to see Monkeys but it was more than easy enough for us. We saw 3 different kinds... The only one's whose name I remember is the Red Tail Monkey. After that we got a guided tour of the park. Our guide knew so much. It was an awesome walk through the woods. My mom would have gone crazy.So many beautiful plants. birds, and butterflies. So amazing. We saw the biggest tree I have ever seen. It is a fig tree. We hope we got some pics that show just how big it really is. We had to be careful about getting to close cuz the guide told us there was a Cobra in the tree. And in the parks here it is all about survival of the fittest. They don't do any of that trying to help plants live stuff. He was like we are in the jungle, What is strong enough to surive......will.After sitting in this cool little hut in the jungle for a while to cool off from the long walk and the humidity we decided to go back out to the road to try to catch a bus to Jinja for Lunch. That wasn't going to happen, every bus that drove by was completel full because of course the day we decide to go to Jinja there has to be a big agriculture show. So, after trying to catch a bus for about an hour we heded back into Kampala. But the day wasn't lost we went to an African Art Gallary, which had some of the most amazing art work. I also did my first bartering(sp) ever. I did pretty well. I got my mom a hand made napkin ring and a hand made drum. On the drum I got the woman down from 40,000 to 28,000 Shillings. That is really good deal for being a mzungu(white person) They knock up the prices really bad. But I couldn't believe I got her to go down in price it was awesome. She just kept saying, "wait come and talk to me, we will work it out. I even bartered on the Napkin Ring that was only 3,000 Shillings to begin with." hahahaha but I was on a roll. The Drum is awesome. I'll have one of the best carry ons on the plane, ever. I'm finally starting to get used to African Cities... or well Ugandain cities. In Kampala there are NO STOP LIGHTS or STOP SIGNS. Absolutely no cossing areas. It is crazy. I mean even Marion has a stop light!!!!! And I'm finally realizing that yes it is alright for there to be a huge group of chicken in the down town area and that it is more than natural for a cow to be hanging out in the road. Also, the police are so corrupt here that the citizens take things into their own hands, for like Car accidents and stealing and stuff. Yesterday we heard gun shot and it didn't even phase us. I have been told it takes two weeks to get used to everything around you so I'm defiantly getting the hang. And I love the kids. But I have loved them since the begining. I have started sounding like Erica and every time something wierd happens I'm just like, know wh wouldn't that happen. Oh, my hotmail works again... so you can email me there. And Tom I LOVE the CDS..... I love the CDs that I got from Everyone. Okay Rafting the Nile tomorrow morning so I need to get back to the compund to get some sleep. Pray for me!!!!!!!

Oh, man..... Last night was the first night here I have had a fun really chill night. About 15 of the volunteers went out Karioking which was a total blast. A bunch of us sang. I was the firt one but it was because Inigo tricked me and I ended up on stage singing Bed of Roses... BY MYSELF!!!!! But I totally paid Inigo back I told him I would get him and I did right before we left I tricked him into getting on stage singing What's New Pussycat....With his Zorro accent....Priceless!!!!!!!! It was weird cuz I had only been with very poor people the whole time I have been here, even though I know there are rich people here and you can live very nice, I hadn't seen any of it yet. And the Karioke bar was in a mall, and pretty mcuh everyone there was really rich. We took some of the guys from the church, and our Matatu driver in with us and they were like we are so lucky to be here. No one comes to garden city from our village. So it was pretty rad to give those guys a nice night out. It as nice to just be out of the house and away from the village. It was weird though cuz it was kinda Bittersweet cuz we all realied it ment Lisa was going to be leaving. She is saaa funny. And one of the most generous people here. She is bringing one of the guys from the Church that works with ACF to America to go to University so then he can come back and help his community. Very cool. Defiantly a role model for all of us here. We just got in a Dutch girl today. Yet another accent for me to not be able to understand. hahahaha When we got back from Karioke, my roomie was asking what was one the roof. I was like...uhhhhh rain. I guess she had thought there was a stampede of Lizards. I don't think they are nearly as bad as the HUGE cockroaches. But she is terrified of the Lizards.One of the Guys here, Farhan, goes to MIT. And he told me that he got a call from YALE saying that they would give him as much as MIT did if he would go there. My jaw just dropped and I was like yeah.... MIT and YALE got into a bidding war over me too...hahahaha.... We got some crazy smart people here. He also said he only applied to Top 10 medical schools. OMG... whole other league from me. Well my big white water rafting adventure is this Sunday. Should be hella fun. I'll try to send ya'll some pics.

Fresh Diary Milk

Spelling here doesn't seem to matter too much as long as you get the jist. I'm far to afraid to buy Fresh Diary Milk.... Maybe it's just me but I sure prefer that Dairy kind. ON our way into Kampala today Grace, Alia and I watched as a herd of Cattle walked down the four lane divided highway. We were all looking at each other going, "Why wouldn't there be a heard of Long horn cattle walking down the highway? It makes perfecr sense." The animals here are all pretty tame because they are so used to being intertwined with humans in everyday life. As we all know I do terribly with accents. I mean I'm really bad. So I'm already having trouble with the African accents, I seem to be able to understand very, very little. But to top it off I can't understand a word the Brits say. And my roomate as such a thick, hard, accent that the other Brits are like yeah.... we don't understand what she is saying. And during the day, when I could have James who is from the same general area as her translate for me, she never seems to talk. Then wehen we are in our room reading, writing in our journals or whatever she seems to get quite chatty. And she will finish a sentence and I'll let a couple minutes go by trying to igure out what she said before I'm finally just like, "Yeah... I pretty much have no idea what you said." or "WHAT?!!!?, WHAT?!?!?!" Very Lil' Jon style. hahahaha.... But I'm surving. I understand pretty much everythign Inigo(The Mexican) says. It is really weird. But everyone says I do a really bad impression of him. They said I make him sound like he is Zorro. And to me.... HE SOUNDS like FREAKIN' ZORRO!!!! Oh, well.Everyone in our group kinda seemed sick today. I really felt bad so I got Echo to cover for my class and headed home took a Cipro went to sleep nad now I'm feeling some what better. I wanted to feel better because we are going to Karioke tonight, and why wouldn't you do Karioke when you are in Africa. Because Lisa, an Air Force Major who is kinda like everyone's really cool mom here, is leaving tomorrow. We got it all cleared to stay out paste 7:30....oh we are all such rebels. But it should be fun day in Kampala. But in the mitts of everything we know it is important to have fun, as well as help people. Keep us sane. Otherwise this all could be a little much....Oh we got a new boy in last ngiht who they are tryign to push off on me and be under Inigo's and I's wing. I'm defiantly not feeling him. he is this wannabe whiteboy from California, who goes to U. of Texas, and came in wearing a Detriot hat like a gangsta. I was like noooooooooooooooooo..... A boy who wants to pretend like he came back to the mother land even though he isn't black. Oh poor rich white boys who have no idea what they are getting themselves into. We'll see how he survives.

It tastes like paint

I'm defiantly having a blast here and loving the work I'm doing with my kids. I got some of the girls playing full court basketball last night after school. *sniff* that was a HUGE step for them. And some of them even began to understand if you pick up your dribble you don't get to dribble again. But there was a majority of the girls who thought the second the ball got passed to them that they had to start driblling. Like, they dind't understand you could catch and then choose to dribble. I had to play in the game too because there is one girl Ester who is 13 and about 5'9" or so. And in Uganda period that is VERY tall much less for a 13 year old. But she was doing pretty well. Very aggressive and she started getting the idea of a box out. It is too bad they have no where to really play basketball. The kids were lining up to watch me do around the world from only about 20 feet out. It took me awhile to get the hang of where to shoot. I had alot of air balls in the begining, cause the hope has no backboard and can be like what ever height they want. It was alot of fun to watch them understand how basketball is played. Its too bad we are playing with a soccer ball. And I have very little money so I can't buy them one.For my performing arts class this new volunteer, Echo, and I are going to have the kids do Noah's Ark. It will be the first play this school has ever done so they might have the parents come. It is pretty exciting. Yesterday we had the kids doing the Catwalk but with different animals. Very exciting to watch them think for themselves. With another class we just did the regular kind of catwalk, with Dancing, that was classic. I also taught them the mary catherine Gallagher "Superstar" and when the other teachers had kids running up to them yelling super star they all would look at me and I was like, "I'll teach them what I want!!!!!" Two days ago Grace and I pretty much had a break down over how bad our hair is and missing chocolate. Everyone was cracking up like we were joking but we were dead serious. Our hair is taking it far and away the worst here.I have to wash myself out of a bucket, so you never really feel that clean. Also, Grace and I have both been here a little over a week and we are already getting Chocolate withdrawls. Because Choclate made in America or Europe is Hella expensive, And Grce and I are the poorest ones here. but the kind made in Kenya is super gross. So we are trapped here with none. And almost everyone who is here is going home before we do, like with in the next couple of weeks And we are both here till late Augsut so no one understands us. And here I am considered like miss optomist so when Grace and I were going on about our hair everyone was like this is so unCarol. I just smiled and was like you have no idea. OH it was classic the other night Rev. Jim gave us a lecture on how we need to keep the bathroom clean, even though only one girl who lived where the messy bathroom is at was at dinner. And then he went on to go, "And I know you American's are not big on showers. I went and stayed with an AMerican in America. And I asked him should we go take a shower. and he said no need for one and wiped himself off with a napkin. So I know you Americans are not clean people who wash themselves off. But you are in Uganda and people here keep themsleves clean." ..........Cricket Noise.....cricket Noise...... cricket noise.........All of us Americans were in complete shock. We are all considerably cleaner than alot of the people here and it is very hard to even sta clean here. And once he left were were all like Where the hell did he go in America? I mean even people in Texas and Appalacia don't just use napkins. All the Candians, Brits, the Aussie and the Japanese girl were like well he wasn't talking to us. So of course now whenever someone says they are going to go clean up we all have to throw napkins at each other. Its cool cuz the volunteers are from all over and we have hard core christains, and a muslim couple, catholics, and jews. It is funny cuz no one is PC and we are all totally different. We were like you couldn't have done better casting for the real world if you tried. I'm pretty much the least PC of everyone, but then the people I hang out with the most are Kanayo from Japan, but now lives in america, Farhan and Alia who are the Muslim boyfreind and Girlfriend. They each have alot of family here so they were killing Grace and I telling us about the mansions they get to stay in on weekends. But they are still dope. There is a new kid from Mexico who is really rich. I'm always quizzing Inigo about being rich and everything. He is cool with all my questions. I'm like I need to come to Mexico City and stay with ya and seee how the rich people down there live. We were all talkign about getting our moms and sisters and stuff tto send us cookies ;) and stuff. and he was like our cook doen't make cookies. HAHAHAHA I was like well my cook, and in my cook I mean my mom, makes cookies if I ask nicely. CLassic. He is really cool though. We went and got Orange Juice this morning and I asked him how it was and he replied, It is really artificial it tastes like Paint. Very cool cat. We are glad he joined us. Oh and he explained to me why he is tall, he is about 6'2". Because I was like oh you know when I heard we were getting a Mexican I didnd't expect you to be over 5'7" and he told me it is because he is European Mexican, so he got the European height. His Grandfathers are from Spain....SOOOOO RICH!!!!!!!! Most of my skirts have been ripping from my falling down hills and in hardcore games of duck, duck, goose. And also trying to catch the matutus(Buses). I think I'm the most banged up of all the volunteers. THis weekend I'll prolly get even more banged up. I'm going White Water rafting down the nile on Sunday. I'm going with Kanayo, Farhan, Alia, Inigo, and Echo....Haahahahahaha And my name is Carol so tell me out of that group which name doesn't belong. But it should be totally cool. The instructors are all a bunch of crazy Kiwis and stuff I guess and most are class 5 we were watching the video from people who went this weekend, it looks like it will be awesome. This is Echos first time away from home so we are making her suck it up and make herself get over her fears. And on Saturday I'm going to Uganda Vs. South Africa. should be alot of fun. I love watching soccer/football.Okay well if anyone wants to call me or you know mail me anything ;) that is completely cool. :) Oh and my hotmail I guess isn't wokring right now but you can email me at bonteko2@msu.edu and leave comments!!!!!

Lizards, roomies, and a prince

Well most of the volunteers are gone this weekend so it should be kinda quite I do have have church tomorrow though and I get to play with Kids today. Most of the volunteers are either white water rafting the Nile this weekend, or have gone to Rwanada to see the Memorials which I guess are amazing, and the rest have gone to Kenya for a Safari. Lots of exciting things to do. I think next weekend I think I am going White water rafting down the nile if we get enough of the volunteers to go. The Reverend we are staying with and is in charge of us I just found out is a Prince. All of us newbies thought it was amazing and the older volunteers were like, "yeah!!! How did you guys not know he was a prince?!?!?!" As if they knew before they came. Those of us who are planning on going rafting next weekend will be going around where his tribe lives and his family estate is, so he said he might be able to show us around some if we have time. Owwwwwwww.... I'm living with a prince, that makes me one step closer to living with Prince William or Harry either way is fine. hahahahahaha. He doesn't exactly live like Eddie Murphay did in Coming to America.I got my roommate ina few days ago she is from Chester England and talks very fast, and almost always seems nervous. Like someone is about to hit her or something. I mean Kelly is a totally sweet heart, she is 21 and a nursery school teacher back in the U.K. But a.) She has pretty much no common sense that is why she teaches nursery school and b.)As anyone who went on study abroad with me knows I ahve lot of truble with accents. And I'm finding most specifically the Manchester area, because James(another volunteer) is from Manchester and I never understand what he is saying either. I just smile and nod politely. And laugh when they laugh and make a serious face when they make a serious face. Really have only understood about 12 words Kelly has said. The animals here are kind of crazy. And yesterday I was in my room with Gypsy(real name Rosalee, if you get the nickname you get otherwise too bad) and Kelly, when one of the lizards that had been on my ceiling fell on me! I hadn't been freaked out by any of the animals until that happened and I freaked out. I mean it landed on me! And then was in my Bed!!! Granted it was a smaliish lizard, but we all still went running out of my room. I had forgotten my misquotio netting which I found out is actually more to keep the cockroaches and lizards off of you than the mosquitos. When we came running out og my room we found Maeghan out there showing everyone here toe. A Jigga Worm had crawled into it. Peace got it out of her toe before it could lay eggs. Yesterday was just a weird animal day. The moral of this story is..... yeah I don't really do morals. But if you got anythingout of it good for you. I'm still falling in love with Africa more each day. but we'll see in 6 weeks. Yesterday was my first day delivering food to people dieing from AIDS they were all very friendly and very nice. I do know some Luganda now so I can talk to them a little. "Oliotia" is "How are you?" and "Gynede" is "Fine" and Walaba is "Good bye" and "Wabali nyo" is"Thank you very much" Knowing those helps you get by.Today I went shopping with one of the new volunteers for some supplies I bought a East Africa Social studies Book for 9,800 shillings and a world map for about 18,000 shillings. Its about 29 U.S. dollars total. But I really wanted them for my class. And I'm willing to give up trying to go to Manchirion(sp) Falls to help these kids out. These kids WILL understand how far away michigan is from Uganda if it kills them. And that I can not be Kanayo's mother(she is from Japan). Fortuantly the map has lansing on it so I can mark it and show them that and then show them where they live and maybe teach them why apples grow in Michigan and not in Uganda. I'm excited we'll see what I can do.

No I like men...

When ever people find out I'm an Athlete and they don't know what sport I play they'll be like, "Oh, you're on the softball team?" I never know how to respond to this, "ummmm....well...no... I like Men." I mean honestly when I hear them jumping to conclusions that I am on the Softball team they might as well go, "So you're a lesbain....." Yeah... No. I could never be a Lesbain. I mean besides the whole not wanting to have sex with a woman part I have enough woman friends to know that I would never want to be talked about the way woman talk about the men they are dating or have slept with. And oooooweee having to deal with how crazy and irrational woman are. You would find me shell shocked in a corner like, "She said she wasn't mad but she seems mad. Why does she keep saying she isn't mad when she is acting like she is mad. And why do I always have to pay for everything? Why do I always feel like she is analysing everything I do? I was just being friendly to the waitress, not hitting on her. She honestly looked fat in those jeans what was I suppose to say......"Yeah, I think I'm going to stick with men. They may be simple but they are easier to handle and they don't care what they look like in their jeans, and I love that!!!

Saddest Commercial ever!

So here is the thing.... bascially the Chips Ahoy ad were the cookie goes where's the cake? And the little girl looks him in the eye and give a little chuckle and goes, we're not having cake..... I can't even tell ya how sad that ad makes me.... I mean he thinks they are there for a party and having cake, but in reality he is there for them to eat him.... I mean we are witnessing the last moments fo his life!!!! OMG and they gave him a party hat!!!! Why why would they do that???? And did you ever take a look at his face when he realizes he is seeing the end.... end its not like he can run!!!!! OH GOD WHY??!?!?!?! The inhumanity!!!!!! I can't eat Chips ahoy anymore!!!!!

Tom is Humor

Tom frickin Cracks me up. I mean he is one of the few people I knew who doesn't think he is the sexiest person to have lived when drunk. Tom last night, "Carol I'm just humor. I'm not looks, I'm not body. I'm just humor. The women want the humor... I'm sobering up." Yeah buddy you really weren't sobering up. hahahaha

Open Love Letter

My Dearest Pierre,Oh, Pierre we have been apart for too long now. To make sure you know I still care for you I have put our history together in a letter. I met you Pierre in Bath England, my girl Becky introduced us. You became my friend that night when I was pushing on a gay guy, who later that night made out with Becky :( I don't care, I still say he is gay. And Pierre none of that matters because it was you, Pierre, who was there for me that night. Pierre, I partied with you in Scotland. And in America you got me to explain the rules of hockey to Boothy and that same night you got me to say everything in question and pronounce my love for Phil at the end of each sentence. But, oh, Pierre where you have been especially welcomed is at Birthday Parties. Pierre, I remember introducing you and Tom on Tom's Birthday. It was my treat, no my HONOR, to introduce you two. I thought you two would be great friends, and in fact for awhile you and Tom got along famously. But then an argument between you two ensued over Courtney... or was it Sarah?! Pierre you clearly won that fight that night between you and Tom. It was kind of hard to watch you take Tom down the way you did. BUT!!! Oh, but, truly… Pierre it was you who made that night memorable for John, Gil and I, though not so memorable for Tom. For my birthday Pierre you made a surprise visit. And I’m so glad you and Tom were friendlier with each other on my birthday. But, Pierre, I’ll never know how you were able to convince Erica, Tom, and I to not only eat Ice Cream cake of my floor but also smash it into each other’s hair, ears and clothes. But you were right that was some good cake and we didn’t want to let it go to waste. Pierre I know you and I personally haven’t been able to spend time together lately. I have even tried to find substitutes for you at times because I miss you. On night I even spent the night with your boys Micky, Schanpps, and Bud. But, I got sick of those guys after one nights, and just had to get them out of my system. Pierre you are the most amazing French-Russian I have EVER known. I love and respect you. With all my deepest love,Carol