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