Hugs

Is it a normal reaction when someone gives you a hug to pull away and go "asshole!"? I feel like it isn't. Yet, that was my response earlier today when I got a hug. I think I might have some issues to work out.

Duck Gang Bang

I need to explain MSU right now. We have this river that runs through campus that pretty much seperates old campus and new campus. It is a nasty, nasty river called the Red Cedar. I guess the river used to freeze over and that is where our hockey team would play. With Global Warming and all it, never really freezes over. So the Ducks never really feel the need to do that Migrate to the south thing I'm assuming they used to do. So there is a freakish amount of ducks around here, and ducks that aren't afraid of people at all. I will lock eyes with them and they can sense that I'm afraid of birds and just trying to put on a brave front, and I can tell they do. not. fear. me.So anyways after running for my life from the ducks today I remember one time a couple summers ago when I was walking along the Red Cedar and saw a duck Gang Bang. Seriously it was a gang bang! There were three bright and colorful boy ducks who kept circling the poor brown girl duckand would push her down and do the giggity giggity giggity. And then get off, circle her again and another one would do it. Me and about 4 or 5 other people were standing there watchingit, all kind of looking at each other to see if we should do something. None of us did of course. I ended up having to go to class. But anytime people think I'm weird for being afraid of the ducks I give them a look that lets them know I have seen the horror of ducks' dark souls.

Random thoughts on God

This might seem random but I have been thinking about God a LOT lately. Trying to take that God that is out there and put him here. I get that God is always here, he is light, he is music… blah, blah, blah. But I just don’t know. Like that idea of Fate. To me that seems where I can get the most glimpse of God… or actually let me rephrase that I feel like God is in the randomness of life. Anyone get what I’m saying? You know that stuff you can’t explain. Like two people can end up across the hall from each other in the dorms and end up falling in love. Well, what if they hadn’t ended up across the hall or even on the same floor or maybe even in the same dorm or university at all. How random or “lucky” was it that they ended up across the hall from one another.
You can last minute decide to go to dinner with friends and someone else whom you never met might go to that dinner too and be looking to hire someone exactly like you. You end up getting a job from that dinner that leads to a career you love but never would have decided to go into if it weren’t for that night. Is that how God reveals himself to us, through the Crazy shit we can’t explain? People say I get too excited over random coincidences, but heck why not?!!! What if those random coincidences are God trying to show us something? He left us with Free Will but that doesn’t mean he can’t nudge us along torwards the life he set out for us. I guess the next time I’m about to udder the phrase, “dang that was random,” I might step back from a moment look up to the sky and go, “Dude… God… What are you trying to tell me?!”

Ballet

I always wanted to be a dancer. To be graceful and ellogant, and lets face it tutus are hot! I have always wanted to wear a tutu. But whenever I trip or stumble over something I think this would never happen if I had been allowed to become the great ballerina that is with in me. One time when I was in 9th grade after a particularly bad fall in a basketball game, it looked like I tripped over the half court line and Casey Garvey replayed that part of the game tape over and over and over..., I asked my mom how come both of my sisters had gotten to take dance class but I never got to. She looked at me and said straight up, "I didn't want to be embarressed. You are so clumpsy, tall, and ackward. IT would have been a complete mess." I wasn't hurt but stunned. Stunned that my career in dance was based on what I ended up because I didn't take dance. Maybe I would have ended up some tall graceful model for tutus, if only I had been able to take dance when I was six.

Book Shelf

If I owned a book store I would name it Book Shelf. It would be a brilliant little book store where people take care of each other. I would know my regular customers and their style of books and would be able to tell them if a new book came in that they might enjoy. I would have the older divorcee woman who is bettering herself. She has moved past her self help book phase and has now gone back to the classic literature she should have read a long time ago and that she has been claiming to have read in college for years.The artsy college student who refuses to go to those chain bookstores because chain stores are the down fall of this country. He comes with his scarf, fair trade coffee, and his pen and notebook (lap tops take away from his love of words) to write out his future book that he always tells me about so I can get his book on my shelf before everyone else. Then there is the old man who loves books, always has. He makes sure to tell me my place isn’t as good as this used bookstore that used to be in the neighborhood, but since I was the closest store to him he was going to have to make himself enjoy my store. HE always takes two of the cookies that I set out instead of just a polite solitary one like everyone else does. I would be a great bookstore owner. Everyone would love me and confide in me. I would be like a bartender but with books instead of booze. I would find some witty anecdote for whatever problem they have from some book I read. I would wear black, drink too much coffee, and have black rimmed glasses. I would be awesome!

My Self Worth

I like to validate my Existence by typing my name into Google and checcking something comes up. I realized that this past school year when I would get quoted in the State News(MSU's newspaper) I tended to come off like an asshole."I am one of the laziest people you'll ever meet," Bontekoe joked on stage. "I live on the third floor, but I take the elevator, and I won't walk up the stairs, but I'll sprint and dive to catch the elevator." -10/4/2004"If there's one experience in my life that beats going to Africa or studying abroad in Europe, it would be playing Plinko at UAB's Price is Right," Bontekoe said.3/21/2005ahhhhh well...... at least you can find something under my name when you google it!

Danger!

I was driving the Skid Steer today and I noticed a sticker on it that simply said:DANGER!AVOID DEATH!no tips on how to achieve avoiding death. they aren't saying you aren't going to die they are just saying Avoid it for as long as possible. And they don't wanna be sued if you fuck up on that whole dieing thing. Isn't that the only time strangers care about someones death? If there is a possiblty of them getting sued. What am I doing right now? I'm Avoiding death.

My First Marriage

Today while I was at the Store trying to buy some stationary I had wondered into the wrong paper aisle and found something that I was tempeted to buy for later. I found a do-it-yourself-kit called:GET A DIVORCE:The Do-It-Yourself-Kit.I thought hmmmmmm... Why shouldn't divorce be available in an aisle for the low cost of 20 dollars. It's perfect. It is so American. I really wanted to get it for my first marriage I want it to be quick and as painless as possible. So maybe I should buy it and save it. So when my first husband decides he won't put out one night I'll reach into my sock draw and pull out the Get a Divorce papers and be like alright you put on Conan I'll start filling these out. Because I am a woman of the 21st century and I can do it by myself. I didn't buy it, not enough money. But it is nice to know that it is there. So when I get married I don't have to be nervous because I know when divorce time comes I can do it myself.

UTC

My open LetterWriting about camp would take too long for me to do again so I just am putting in the email I sent my sister about it.Hola Hermana!Girl I'm glad you got to Ecuador safe and everything, and I'm glad that mom's fears about you being brought to Ecuador as a slave to some Ecuadorian family as been abated, but girl you told me like nothing about la Jungla! What is the low down Double D? Any cool birds or monkeys?Well that Camp I went to was awesome! I think you should do it next year. I had prepared myself for the absolute worst but it was so cool. Like everyday we would learn a lesson from the Bible and then we would try to apply that lesson while we played volleyball. Of course my volleyball team lost ALL of our games the first day, so my uber competive nature had trouble remembering the principles I just cursed the fact that I had never been a good volleyball player because I wanted to WIN!!! We evetually did start winning but it was after a long time. We even had to play one game in complete silence! No clapping even. That was frickin' intense.We got to go white water rafting! They weren't very big rapids but it was fun, it was rainy so the water was pretty fast and choppy. And even though these weren't big rapids, one guy on my boat fell out! His name is Dan and he fell out because of his own stupidity. He of course acted like he was the best rafter in the group and would never listen. So he fell out and it took forever(!) to get him back in the boat. Because it took so long to get him in the boat we got derailed and ended up in an Eddy, which is suppose to be the safe area. Well in the midsts of pulling Dan's dumbass back in the boat the other fat kid Max and I ended up on the same side of the boat. SO while we were in the Eddy we ended up High Siding with no warning. It didn't high side on the fat kid side! So the boat is up on one side and we were all scrambling to get to the high side, I honestly thought the boat was going to flip but I was still fighting it. But I couldn't really hold on so i grabbed Max's life Jacket and he broke me off of him and I WENT IN THE WATER!!!! AHHHH!!!! SO COLD! And the problem with falling in where I did is it was so freakin' shallow, I probablly just could have stood up and gotten back in. But in the panic of Carol has fallen out of the boat, They wouldn't let me go and I was being dragged on top of rocks, Hit my knee! And I had the world's smallest life jacket so my back was getting beat up.But my boat had the most interesting journey so it's all good in the end and I wasn't seiriously hurt. Another night we went to this place called Fort Fun which had laser tag and these girls Ali and Molly kept pretending to be nice to me and then would kill me. So I did terribly but I had fun. HAHAHAHA I have been putting off telling you about what you wanna hear about. THE SPECIAL! That 24 hour work out thing that you wanted me to go into training for. I prolly should have trained but I don't think there is anything I could have really done to train for it. I did finish! I did fine actually. And like cuz I'm fat they kept thinking I couldn't do anything. We like started out with Volleyball where my team sucked, then ultimate frisbee where my team sucked, then tug of war where my team actually did alright, then push-ups where I feel like we weren't the worst team, then Swimming where may I say I kicked ass, Then Basketball. That was the first day. I kept getting frustrated cuz seriously every five seconds they were like Carol you need a break? I'm like I'm freakin' fine. They even were like checking on me during swimming, when I was doing well. We did get like 2 hours sleep after all that before having to get up at 4 for an obsticle course. It was insane. That is when I was breaking down cuz I'm so tired. We had to make free throws in the dark, hit tennis balls in the dark, do the army crawl, up downs, go around a track, and then push a car. All that while carrying a board with a tire around it. It sucked ass! We ran like 3 miles! after that I passed out for a little bit and ya know how I sleep with my eyes open, one girl thought my I was dead! hahahaha.Then we played Kick Ball(where I was still asked if I was alright) and then we did relays where I had to do crab crawl cuz one girls arms were tired and it took me like a half hour to do the crab crawl. After that is when I had to run up the mountain with a board on my back. It was so hard and I wasn't running so much as walking, BUT I FINISHED!!! WHAT?! WHAT?! I'm really glad I did it though!I even found some good chrstian songs for ya cuz I know how much ya like them ;) My favorite was called Prince of Peace. Saaaaaaaa Good. ALright I'm going to go rake leaves!!!!! NEVER ENDS DOES IT?! Holla back at me girl and have fun!From here to the moon this is CAROL BONTEKOE signing out

Life's Plan

Have you ever had one of those moments in life where you thought to yourself. Man My life did not turn out the way I thought it would. I seem to have those alot. But this morning I had a big one of those realizations. I was tailing a cow this morning, that is when you hold up the cow's tail because it makes them more complacent and makes it so they can't kick. Well if you can't already visualize it, if I'm having to fight a cow to keeps it's tail up that means that I'm lookin' her straight in the ass. So when one of these lovely ladies decided to crap on my face,I thought Man my life did not turn out how I thought it would. If you had told me growing up or even in high school that in the summer of my 21st year I would be having a cow crap on my face at 7 in the morning I would have laughed at you. But here we are and I sure enough got crapped on my face. So I'm going to stop thinking my life is going to be so grand, cuz then the next time I'm standing there with crap on my face I won't be so suprised. Maybe I should expect bad things because then life will give me good. So if I expect to die young I'll live til I'm old. If I expect to never find the love of my life he will come a knockin' on my door. And if I expect to be poor I'll end up with Bill Gates kind of money honey. So that is the plan from now on I'm going to absolutely be a pessimist, so I'm always delightfully suprised. I'll Never think about my future because then I will never have to think about how my life didn't turn out as planned. I will NEVER be suprised ever again by having my face crapped on.

Clueless

I am familiar with the old 1990’s film that shows the life of a clueless Beverly Hills GIRL. But that is not fair. If you wanted to make a movie that truly could be called Clueless it would need to be about a BOY, not a girl.
The question on my mind is: WHY ARE BOYS SO CLUELESS? Why is it that they have the ability to crush your spirit, hurt your feelings, and in general make you feel over looked, and then can smile at you and start joking around about the latest movie (book, song, show, game, whatever is their thing)?
It is times like these that I curse God for making me absolutely not attracted to women. Life would be so much easier with women. Wait! Scratch that then I would have to put up with moods, Lilith fair, and the complete chaos of never being able to properly answer those double-edged questions such as “Do you think she is prettier than me?” as a blatantly better looking girl walks by. No, dating women would not be the answer.
But I still hate how completely oblivious boys are. Maybe since I am not willing to switch to the other metaphoric team I should just give up on being on a team all together. I could join plants, worms, and Paula Pondstone and become asexual. At 21 should I just turn in my gear and walk a way from “the game”? I know I had friends whose parents told them to stop playing if they weren’t having fun, that could be the answer. Or maybe I need to stick with how my mom raised me, you fall down, fail, everyone kicks you and you are suppose to stand up put on your best half-hearted smile and shake it off. Sometimes I wish I could return to the simplicity of a little league game instead of this grown up “game” of relationships.

What a Mess!

V. Bad. Room is completely Trashed. So is life. I found that I like them that way though. There is always potential to fix them and make them better. They will get better when I make the desicion to fix them. But, if they are a mess and I have been trying to fix them than I'm just a failure. As long as I keep my room and my life a complete mess I still have time to fix them up and finsih on top. With a fantastic room and a terific life. :)

The biggest oxymoron I ever saw

CMT celebrates Black History Month......

Crushing

I was thinking about Crushes today. How we build our crushes up to become these super people. I mean isn't your crush always the smartest person you know. Oh and of course funny in this way that you totally get, even if other people don't. There is always just that something, that thing you can't describe about them that makes them so special to you. Then of course there is the issue of befriending your crush. Oh man don't even get me started(as Molly Shannon would say) That seems to be my hobby, either becoming their friend once I have a crush on them or crushing a friend and becoming an even better friend to them. I'm always that funny pal they can call if they need me but have a tendency to forget about til they really need something, even though you being the crusher(sounds more badass than pathetic) is always on time and very attentive. There is always that issue too of them not being interested in you. But an even more pressing and upsetting issue is when they like someone else and you have to hear about it. Because of course you hate the bitch(there is the random once in a while where they like someone who is actually nice and that can be much worse and hurt much more then when they like the crazy ass bitch) but you can never tell them that. You don't want to look like you like your crush and trash talking the bitch is the fast way to look like you do. You have to smile and say nice things about her and stuff. Where as when you don't like someone and they really are just your friend you can call his girlfriend a drunken slut all you want. I was thinking about my crush today. Alright I think about him everyday, get of my back!!!!! Well anyways Jenny Jo and I were watching Scrubs we both have a superficial crush on the character J.D., not Zach Braff he in real life seems weird. But I was hypothetically thinking that it is more likely that I have more of a chance of getting with J.D.(a made up character) then I do my crush. So it made me think should we never have crushes because of the CRUSHing pain it can cause? Or should we only like people that we can have? Or should I just give up and become a catholic and give up on men and become a nun?And then I realized even though nothing may come of them I actually enjoy having a crush. It leaves you something to hope for. And sometimes a little hope is what we need in our lives.

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!!!!!!!!!