Personal Hygiene

Pictured Here:

Before and after pictures of the newly installed sink in the Operation Room. The other half of 'Phase 2' installed a sink and pipes in the Maternity Ward.

Earlier this month was 'International Teachers Day' and my village had a ceremony for all of the teachers. It was great; we ate, we drank, then we went home.

As I was walking home, I received a text from Madison, another PCV. We texted back and forth until I reached my house. I sent another text to her as I was walking to my outhouse. Well, it is dark in my outhouse and I frequently activate my phone's flashlight ability and balance the phone on my door in order to 'do my business' with some light.

Just as I set my phone on the door and was about ready to...um...uh...you know. Madison texted me. My phone (which was on vibrate because of the ceremony) buzzed once, fell off of the door frame, hit the floor, bounced, then went right into the outhouse hole. Nothin' but net.

I got a new phone and a new number the next day.

In other news, 'Phase 2' of the water project in Rubona is officially finished. I just had a meeting with Jenny, the PCV in Rwamagana city who has been helping me with the grants, and we are starting 'Phase 3' this week. 'Phase 3' will concetrate on getting sinks and the appropriate plumbing installed in the men's and women's hospitalization wards. (These wards, like much of the health center, currently have only buckets of water available for nurses and patients to use.) The grant is pretty much finished, we just need to send it in and wait for the confirmation of approval.

In related news, I received a generous donation of soap, shirts, and shoes from Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. In an effort to keep this blog short, I won't go into great detail regarding the village, BUT I will encourage you to check out the website:

http://www.asyv.org/home.html

Because they gave me 100 bars of soap, I figured the best day to distribute these materials would be on October 15, also known as 'International Hand Washing Day.' So, I invited some PCVs and some ASYV volunteers to help me give tutorials about hand washing at my house on that day. I also invited students from the adult English class that I teach during the week nights to come and translate for us.

Everything went great. Lilly, a volunteer from ASYV, and Tom, a fellow PCV, joined me on Friday to give the tutorials. I had recruited about 15 other volunteers from the village to help us out, most of them being my students from the adult English class. Together we taught almost 100 people: how to wash their hands; when to wash their hands; what to use to wash their hands; and why to wash their hands. Villagers that completed the lesson successfully received their choice of a shirt or shoes. The event last only three hours, but it served almost 100 people; if I had more shirts and shoes to give out, it could have easliy lasted another three hours and served another 100 people.

That is all for now. Peace.

Language Lessons Lead to Love

(Pictured Here: Verene [wearing the red blouse] and Callixte [wearing the grey suit and the red tie] at the Nzigiye Sector Office on their wedding day.)

Yesterday I attended the civil wedding of Callixte and Verene. The ceremony took place at the sector office in Nzigiye, a neighboring sector of Rubona (the sector where I live and work).

Civil weddings are pretty tame; at least, the ones I have attended are pretty low key. They generally take place at a sector office where the head of the sector conducts the marriage ceremony, which usually includes from two to eight couples. Each couple takes turns making the marriage official through the state of Rwanda - the public officials presiding over the group ceremony take the couples' finger prints and have the couples sign some legal documents and swear some oaths.

Civil ceremonies are generally attended by local family members and friends. This doesn't sound like it would be a lot of people, but because up to eight couples can get married at once, the room at the sector office can fill up quickly. These ceremonies, though modern in nature, are traditional in the sense that the civil wedding itself takes place in the sector where the wife's family lives. There is also a reception held afterwards; depending on the family's economic means the reception could be at a hotel or at the home of the wife's family. If the reception is held at the later location, you will probably find more traditional food and drink - these are the best receptions, I feel.

The dowry and the church ceremony usually come after the civil wedding, though not necessarily right away. I have been a part of some ceremonies where the civil marriage happened on a Saturday and the next day was the dowry and church wedding. However, I also know some couples that have had their civil wedding months ago and are still saving up money, and vacation days from work, in order to properly celebrate at a church. The order of these events really all depends on each couple's economic situation and work schedules.

I may have explained a lot of stuff about civil weddings in an earlier blog entry, but I am too lazy to sort through them to check. At any rate, I wouldn't normally even write about a ceremony that, though very important, is so bland. However, this particular civil wedding had a very interesting back story. Well, interesting to me, at least, because Callixte and Verene are both students in the adult English language course I teach on weekday evenings.

Verene is a bio-technician in the lab at the health center I work at and has been a great friend of mine since the day I arrived in Rubona; she has been registered in my class since it began. Callixte is a neighbor who has also been a student of mine for almost two years now. I am pretty sure they knew each other before the class began, but I was told that they really didn't get to know each other more personally until they started studying together. Apparently, they have been 'cultivating the love' (dating) for a while now and have decided to take the next step and get married.

I am not taking credit as a matchmaker or anything. I just think its cool that my English class played the role that it did in their love story.

Verene and Callixte, I wish you many years of wedded bliss. May God bless you both.

Check it out!

http://appropriateprojects.com/node/352

'Phase 1' and 'Phase 2'

The health center in my village officially has running water!

Thank you for your hard work, Jenny!

Before I had left for Malawi, Jenny (a PCV in Rwamagana city) and I began working on getting running water in the Birthing Room, the Lab, and in the main Consultation Office of the health center in my village. Jenny had done the leg work of completing the grant and getting the money and I was 'overseeing construction' - which means I was to make sure that the construction work actually got done at the site.

Before I had left on my trip, the construction was well on its way; when I returned, it was all finished. The nurses are so happy with the results that they have asked Jenny and I to find more money to get running water to the Operation Room and the Maternity Ward. I helped Jenny with the grant application for this 'Phase 2' project and now she and I are waiting for the answer, which should arrive any day now.

If/Once Jenny and I get the money, we'll be able to get 'Phase 2' construction started and begin getting money for 'Phase 3.' I would like 'Phase 3' to focus on getting running water to the two other Consultation Offices on the other side of the health center grounds, the Bathrooms, and the two Hospitalization Wards. I may have to split 'Phase 3' into three parts, which means the Consultation Rooms would be 'Phase 3,' the Bathrooms would be 'Phase 4,' and the Hospitalization Wards would be 'Phase 5'...or something like that...

...sorry, now I am just typing my stream of consciousness.

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for us!

The one when Emmett goes to Malawi

Pictured Here: (From Top to Bottom)

* Brandon takes a coconut to the face in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

* Trena, on the train from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya, Tanzania, takes in the view.
* Nora hangs out at 'Big Blue Star Backpackers,' the lodge we stayed at in Nkhata Bay, Malawi.

* Me, Emmett, sips some 'Shake-Shake' - a local alcoholic drink in Malawi.

* Malcolm looks out over Lake Malawi in a dugout canoe.

* Kate gets some must needed rest while waiting for a bus in Mzuzu, Malawi.

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Malawi Trip: Play-by-Play

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Saturday, August 7th

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The trip began. Malawi does not border Rwanda, so we had to go through Tanzania. Personally, I had no problem with this; I still had my Tanzania Visa and I wanted to see more of Dar es Salaam anyway.

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We knew that going to Malawi through Dar was not the most time efficient move, but we knew that if we went to Dar, we could then get a train to Mbeya (a Tanzania/Malawi border town). Excited about the prospect of taking a train through South Tanzania, we didn't have a problem with going the long way around.

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The bus we got on that morning was going to take us directly to Dar. It was going to take like 36 hours nonstop to get there, but it was going to get us there. Some of us took the same bus to get to Dar when we visited Zanzibar late last year, so we knew what we were getting into. (When I say 'we' here I mean me, Malcolm, and Brandon, so the girls just had to trust us.)

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Sunday, August 8th

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The bus had left very early Saturday morning. We got into Dar around 11am on Sunday. The bus ride was kind of a blur. All I remember was falling in and out of sleep very often, going down some very bumpy roads at a ridiculous speed, and, consequently, praying for my life - so, I pretty much had the same experience that I had last year when I took the bus to Dar.

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We made it out of the Dar bus station and checked into our rooms at the local YMCA. We unloaded our gear and explored the city a bit. We didn't get much exploring done, though. It was Sunday AND Ramadan was starting in another couple of days, so a lot of places were closed. However, it did feel great to finally be off of that bus!

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Monday, August 9th

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We spent the day hanging around Dar and planning the rest of our traveling specifics to Malawi - the end destination being Nkhata Bay, Malawi. An important part of this planning was buying tickets, which required money, of course.

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Here was my situation: I had about $400 American dollars that my folks had given me, but I still had about $200 Rwandan Francs to convert into Tanzanian Shillings. I did not convert my Francs into Shillings at the Rwanda/Tanzania border because I thought that the exchange rate would be better in Dar.

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When we got to Dar, I learned that I made a big mistake. There was ONE place in Dar that could exchange Francs into Shillings and, guess what, they were not buying Rwandan Francs that day. We spent the better part of this day running around town, trying to convert Francs to Shillings. We must have went to 20 different For-Ex offices. Brandon and I even went to the Rwandan embassy in Tanzania to find someone to help us out. It was a long shot, but we were that desperate.

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Every For-Ex gave us the same answer: 'No.' And when Brandon and I went to the embassy we didn't get any help. The embassy was closed in celebration of the presidential election happening in Rwanda. The guard merely wished us luck and sent us on our way.

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I was so hell-bent on getting my money changed over this day, that I didn't get to enjoy the city. I was kind of upset. I mean, how can a country that borders another country not be able to convert its currency!? I can convert Shillings to Francs anywhere in Rwanda, which is what I should have done in the first place, I guess. Anyway, after an exhausting day of running around, we had dinner at a 'Subway' that was close to our rooms at the YMCA. The meal was delicious.

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Tuesday, August 10th

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We spent Tuesday morning looking for a place to exchange Francs into Shillings. Before we started the adventure, however, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to be able to convert my Francs.

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This trip was not starting well for me; instead of having $600 for this trip, I now only had $400. Was it even possible to do this trip with only $400? I was going to find out.

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After briefly searching town for a place to change money, we made our way to the train station in Dar. We hung out at the station for a few hours, got on the train at about 5pm and started for our next destination: Mbeya, Tanzania.

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Wednesday, August 11th

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The train was great. We reserved a second class car that fit the six of us pretty well. The beds folded out from the wall and the train staff provided us with some blankets and sheets. This was a good thing because Tuesday night was pretty cold, actually. On a side note: we were told that the train went through one of the national parks in Tanzania, but it was too dark to see anything when we went through it.

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We arrived in Mbeya on Wednesday afternoon. We got off the train and got public transport to the Tanzania/Malawi border. We crossed the border into Malawi that afternoon and made it as far as Nkaranga, a Malawi town a few hours South of the border.

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Once in Nkaranga, Malawi we got a place to stay and went to dinner. After dinner we called it a night.

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Thursday, August 12th

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It wasn't until the next day that one of our party members realized that she had left her purse at the restaurant. An employee at the restaurant had brought the purse back in the middle of the night. Nothing was missing...except for $350! We went back to the restaurant to investigate where the missing money went, but our leads were not promising. Luckily she was able to get some money wired to her a few days later, so it wasn't a horrible emergency, just an expensive inconvenience.

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We left Nkaranga well rested, but a little bitter about losing some of our funds. We pushed on farther South, however. We caught public transport to Mzuzu, Malawi and from there we caught another bus to Nkhata Bay, Malawi - our final destination!

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Just a quick geography note. Nkhata Bay is right on Lake Malawi and is about half the distance between the Malawi/Tanzania border and Lilongwe, Malawi's capital city. I provided a map on the previous blog entry; you might be able to find Nkhata Bay's location.

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We arrived into Nkhata Bay just after dark. We checked into our lodge, 'Big Blue Star Backpackers,' and hit the lodge bar immediately. We spent the night drinking and, let me tell you, we needed the release. At this point we had been on the road almost nonstop since Saturday morning; we were exhausted! We made great time, however; we got into the Bay a full day earlier then we thought we would. So, to celebrate this small achievement, we had a drink or two.

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Friday, August 13th

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We didn't really do much on Friday. I don't know what everyone else did, but I slept in. After catching up on sleep, I did my laundry and walked into town to explore the market.

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I was really blown away by our arrangements at Nkhata Bay. The backpackers lodge was really cool. It was right on Lake Malawi and the lodge had space for tents, if you wanted to camp, and it also had dorm rooms and smaller bungalows. The bungalows were the most expensive arrangement at about $7-$8 a night; we rented three of them.

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The lodge also had a full bar, restaurant, kitchen, beach, computers with Internet access, and a lounging area (complete with T.V., cable, DVD player and DVDs). All areas were open to the guests. They also had canoes, rafts and snorkeling gear to rent for free; it was great.

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Saturday, August 14th and Sunday, August 15th

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Honestly, these day were really the same. We just hung out and relaxed; nothing crazy to report. We did meet some Peace Corps Malawi Volunteers on Saturday and on Sunday one of them took us to a local beach.

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Monday, August 16th

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This day was pretty eventful. I ate my first Chambo (a type of fish) and had my first drink of Shake-Shake (a local alcoholic drink). Both were delicious. Well, the Shake-Shake was pretty bad for the first couple of sips, but, like all alcohol, it doesn't taste as bad the more you drink.

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The backpackers' lodge organized a boat trip that day that took us to another beach further down Lake Malawi. The boat trip was cool and the beach was beautiful. When we had first arrived to Malawi, it was very cold and very windy. Monday was a bit warmer and definitely not as windy. Therefore, the conditions were great for going out on the lake.

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The conditions were also great for feeding the Fish Eagles. These are just what they sound like - big Eagles that eat fish. I had seen Fish Eagles at Akagera National Park in Rwanda, but I had never seen one as close as I had this day.

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We were out in the boat and one of the local guys that was maneuvering the boat told his partner to cut the engine. So we sat in this boat for a little while and the one boat guy began putting two little fish on each end of a stick. He then began to whistle to the Fish Eagles, calling their attention. Apparently, feeding the Fish Eagles is something that is done pretty often by the employees of the backpackers lodge. The Eagles are 'trained' to come at this call because they know that they are going to be fed.

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It was pretty cool. Once a Fish Eagle was spotted, the guy whistled very strong, then held up the stick with the two small fish on either end and threw it a few yards from the side of the boat. The Fish Eagle would see the fish, dive down from the trees, and snag the fish-stick (literally). The bird would then fly back to the trees and eat its gift. It was really cool to see them up close; they have an incredible wingspan. We fed them as we were going to and coming from the beach.

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Tuesday, August 17th and Wednesday, August 18th

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These days were fun, but they consisted of pretty much the same activities: eating and drinking. Ha! I ate so much fish these two days and I drank so many Carlsberg beers - I know I gained weight on this trip.

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Just a side note: Carlsberg is really the only beer you can find in Malawi; the company has a 99 year production lease or something like that. One of the PC Malawi guys was explaining it to me, but by then I had too many Carlsbergs and I couldn't keep up with/remember much of the conversation.

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Thursday, August 19th

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This was our last full day in Malawi. What did we do? We ate, drank, and hung out on the beach, of course. This time, however, we borrowed the lodge's raft and stayed at the lodge's beach. In the afternoon we went into town and bought more Shake-Shake and Power. Power is a popular hard alcohol and it is most commonly sold on the street in little packets. We went into town and bought two full bottles of it along with some drinks to mix it with. That was a great afternoon/evening.

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Friday, August 20th and Saturday, August 21st

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I woke up that Friday morning feeling a bit sick...okay, okay...hungover. At any rate, we packed up our gear that afternoon and checked out. Well, all but one of us. Brandon decided to stay another day or two and hang out, but the rest of us needed to get back.

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We left Nkhata Bay and made it to Mzuzu that afternoon. The bus we were to take from Mzuzu was suppose to leave at 12 midnight, but it didn't show up until 2am! It was soooooooooo cold waiting at that bus station for all those hours...so damn cold. But we survived.

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We made it out of Malawi on Saturday and we were pretty much taking the same route we took to get to Nkhata Bay, but in reverse. We would have done it exactly like that too, but we got stuck in Mbeya, Tanzania. The train we were going to take that afternoon from Mbeya to Dar es Salaam was delayed until the next morning. So, we had two options, really. We could sleep at the train station and take the train back to Dar the next morning OR we could stay the night in town and take a 10-12 hour bus to Dodoma. We chose the second option.

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Dodoma is Tanzania's capital city. It is North of Mbeya and closer to Rwanda than Dar. In fact, if we went to Dar we would be going a bit in the opposite direction. We thought that maybe this was for the best. Skipping Dar, we thought, would shave some time off of our trip back too.

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Sunday, August 22nd

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We left Mbeya and went North to Dodoma, Tanzania. This bus ride was pretty cool because it went through one of the national parks and we did see some animals, specially Giraffes, Baboons, Warthogs, and Antelope.

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We made it to Dodoma with no problems and we were thinking we could get a bus from Dodoma to Rusumo, the border town of Rwanda/Tanzania. Wrong. We got to Dodoma and could only get a bus to Kahama, a city closer to Rwanda but still 5-6 hours East of Rusumo. This bus to Kahama, however, didn't leave until the next day, so we stayed the night in Dodoma.

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Monday, August 23rd and Tuesday, August 24th

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Exhausted reading this thing yet? Try living it.

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Anyway, we made it to Kahama and spent the night. On Tuesday we got up, took a bus from Kahama to Rusumo, and took a bus from Rusumo to Rwamagana. The End.

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Notes:

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Though I felt as though I spent just as much time in Malawi as I spent getting to and from Malawi, it was still a pretty awesome trip. The transportation wasn't all that bad, really. The fish in Malawi was delicious, the beaches were beautiful, and the people were very chill. I would totally visit Malawi again, though I want to go with more money in my wallet. I only spent like $400 total - that includes travel and everything. I was never able to change those Francs into Shillings. I didn't even try to convert my Francs into Kwacha (Malawi's currency); I knew it would have been a lost cause and I wasn't about to waste any more of my trip worrying about it.

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I know it seems like all we did was eat, drink, and travel, but some stories you just can't translate onto a blog. The story just doesn't make sense unless you were there and a part of it; I tried writing some of them out, but they didn't come across as funny or as entertaining as they were for us. I suppose that is because I am not that strong of a writer.

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Just another update before I sign off: the construction at the health center is finished apparently. I heard through the grape vine that the health center in my village now has running water in three of its facilities. I have heard that everything went so well, that they want to get the rest of the health center set up with plumbing. Giddy up!

Malawi, Kickball, and Construction

The vacation request was just approved! Going next week! Malawi, here we come!

On another note, the kickball tournament last weekend was fun. It was very well organized and it was great to see PCVs from the different training groups.

Construction has begun at my health center; they should have running water in the lab, the maternity ward, and one of the counseling rooms by the end of August!

Brandon has let me borrow his harmonica and its 'How to Play' book. We'll see if I can make more of a contribution to the band besides singing.

I still haven't received my photos and video of the white water rafting trip on the Nile River. Once I do, you'll know.

More to come soon!

Uganda

Pictured here:

The Nile River and July 4th dinner.

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Groast 2 took place on the 4th of July weekend at Tom and Malea's house. It was a great time; we drank, ate a bunch of food (not just goat), and Brandon brought his guitar and we sang some songs we have been practicing.

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The next weekend (July 9th), a bunch of us went into Uganda - the country directly North of Rwanda. We traveled from Kigali straight through to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The trip was like 9 hours - not all that bad, really. We hung out in Kampala that first night after we arrived. We had Mexican food and it was freakin' spectacular. I had not had Mexican food in almost two years, so I ate ferociously.

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The next day (Saturday) 'Adrift,' the company we hired to give us a tour down the Nile River, picked us up from our hotel in Kampala and took us to the rafting outpost. The drive from Kampala to the outpost was a couple hours; the trip was okay. Uganda's weather is very similar to Rwanda's, but the landscape is different; specifically, there are no hills in Uganda like there are in Rwanda. So, the scenary was kind of bland.

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We arrived at the outpost and got our stuff stored in our rooms at the lodge. We changed our cloths and immediately prepared to hit the rapids; this was going to be an all day event.

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Just a couple of quick notes. The source of the Nile is actually in Rwanda (or so say the Rwandans I know), BUT the white water part of the Nile (where the river gets really serious) starts in Uganda.

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Also 'Adrift' does have a place where people can bungee jump into the Nile; seriously, like into the Nile. They can adjust the cord so that you can touch the water if you want. Anyway, Tom and I were signed up and ready to do it, we even paid our money, BUT the guys at the outpost said that we couldn't do it as soon as we got there, which is what we were told initially. They said we would have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to do our jump. Tom and I had scheduled some activities with the rest of our traveling party the next day (Sunday). We didn't want to wait around all of Sunday to jump; we wanted to see some more of Kampala AND we still needed to figure out how we were going to leave Uganda on Monday. We begged and pleaded to jump as soon as we got to the camp, but they said it would be too much of a time crunch.

Tom and I think we'll hit up the bungee jump another time. Rafting was a blast and we both agreed we want to do it again with the same company - 'Adrift'. Anyway, we decided that we'd try to organize another outing to Uganda, but next time we will make sure we have plenty of time to do more stuff. We totally want to raft the Nile again, and we want to bungee jump over it, but we also want to see Lake Victoria (the largest lake in Africa) and I want to go on a safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park. I heard that in this park you can see lions and elephants; Akagera National Park in Rwanda has these animals, but I haven't seen them yet. I heard that in Queen's Park in Uganda, you see them all the time.

Sorry, I got kinda side tracked there for a minute. Anyway, we got ourselves all geared up and we hit the river with our raft guide, Big J. There was eleven of us in the boat - Big J, me, my 7 other traveling companions, and a couple from Estonia. The Estonians were pretty cool. Apparently, they were both actors in a horror movie being filmed in Uganda; they had some spare time and the director let them have some R and R.

For the first hour or so, Big J kept us in still waters and reviewed with us what to do if/when certain things happen - what to do if/when you fall out of the raft, what to do if/when the raft flips, and so on. He introduced us to a couple of the kayakers that would be ahead of us in the rapids; he said that these guys would be plucking us out of the water if/when we fell out of the boat. Once the safety demonstrations were finished, we hit the river.

White Water Rafting the Nile River was amazing. We rafted a bunch of baby rapids (class 2s and 3s) but we hit five different class 4s and as many class 5s. There were some class 6s on our run, but we dodged them because they would have killed us. Seriously, Big J, our guide, said that he had done them in a kayak, but never in a raft full of inexperienced rafters. He said that even in a kayak, a class 6 rapid is not something an experienced rafter does every day.

It was a lot of fun, though. In the morning, I was sitting on the middle of the raft, across from Tom. We flipped over once in the beginning during a class 4 or 5 rapid, I can't remember. The last thing I remember before we flipped was that it looked like we were falling into a huge washing machine - like it was the belly button of the world, or something. Anyway, we were tossed over and I was trapped under the raft for a bit, but I was able to free myself and grab a kayaker.

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Once we made it through the rapid, we just got back on the raft and kept going. Later that day Big J told us that he flipped us intentionally, 'just for fun.'

In the afternoon, we stopped at an island and had lunch - probably the best lunch I have ever had in my life. After lunch, Tom and I were asked to take the front two seats on the raft; we accepted the positions. We got in the boat and hit some more rapids.

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The front seat was awesome! And sitting across from Tom the whole trip down river was really an experience in itself. After the flip we had in the morning, I started trying to time my breathes so that if/when we flipped the next time, I would have a lung full of air; thus, preventing another near-death experience. So the whole time we were hitting the rest of the rapids, I was holding my breathe in intervals, but Tom was screaming at the top of his lungs, 'It's wet! It's wild! I love it!'

The afternoon was fun. There was this one rapid that was a waterfall; it was a class 4 or class 5 and it began with a 12 foot drop - that was a fun one. At the end of the day there was this loooooooooong class 6. Big J pointed it out and said, 'Okay, guys, let's paddle to shore as fast and as hard as we can!' We had to get to shore, pull in the raft, and walk it further down river, past the class 6. At the end of the class 6 there was a class 5 (they said it was a class 5+, I don't know if those exist or not, but whatever). Once we got past that last rapid, we were finished. And right where we finished (on the shore) there was a BBQ with cold beer and roasted meat waiting for us. It was a delicious ending.

'Adrift' was a great company - very well organized. I felt safe and I had a great time while I was on the river. I totally want to go back and bungee jump, though; I hear that its pretty cool. They used to let people do the bungee jump naked. If you did it naked, then you didn't have to pay. My eyes light up at the possibility of doing something cool AND doing it for free. Big J noticed the look on my face and said that they don't do that 'offer' any more; he said too many people were doing it naked and they weren't making any money. Damn.

Anyways, the facilities were pretty nice too, though they were swarming with Vervet monkeys. The guides themselves were characters. Seriously, they were fun, knowledgeable guys.

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After rafting, everyone showered and hit the bar. We got seats, ordered food, and watched the World Cup match between Uruguay and Germany. After the first half of the match, one of the guides turned down the television and announced that the video was ready at the other end of the bar.

Oh Yeah! I forgot to tell you, 'Adrift' had people taking pictures and video of us from the shore the whole day. They made discs for everyone to buy. My picture disc and my video disc have not come in yet, but when they do, I will post what I can on here and on facebook.

The video was great; it was very well done. After that, we finished watching the game and went to bed. We got up early the next day (Sunday) and headed back to Kampala. Once in Kampala, we went to the big market they have (I wasn't impressed), we hit up a mall (a real mall, like in the states), and ate some really good Indian food. That night we saw the World Cup finals match at a bar.

The next day (Monday) we woke up super early, got on our bus, and went back to Kigali. We were a few hours into our trip home when we heard that bombs had gone off in Kampala Sunday night during the World Cup finals match. An Ethiopian restaurant and a Rugby bar had been suicide bombed by Somali terrorists and about 60-70 people were either dead or wounded. Later that week we received a message from PC stating that travel to Uganda was prohibited until further notice.

We made it back safe and sound. And that was our trip to Uganda.

As far as future trips and events are concerned, this weekend I am going to a Kickball Tourney in West Province Rwanda and the guys and I are still trying to finalize everything to go to Malawi in August.

As far as work is concerned...well...its work - same routine, different day. Its great and I love it, don't get me wrong, but there is really nothing to write about that I haven't already written about.

I am still helping out at the health center, though we aren't seeing as many patients now as we were a few months ago. This is because its dry season now (seriously, it has not rained in months) and malaria outbreaks die down a bit during this time. The staff at the health center are doing just fine. No news there.

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Oh yeah! There is news. Jenny, a volunteer in Rwamagana city, and I are working on a grant to get running water to the health center in my village. Jenny did a lot of the leg work because I don't have a computer or Internet access. She just told me that we got the money too; we need to get the money to the health center so they can hire local contractors to get the work started.

The adult English class I teach in the evenings is still in session. Everyone is doing well. Participation has dropped, though. This is mostly because everyone is so involved in the presidential election that is happening in August. There are a lot of community meetings happening in the evenings to prepare for the event.

Rutambi and his family are doing okay. Rutambi's English is getting better every time we meet. He is on vacation from school now, along with his brothers and sisters, so we get to hang out a bit more now-a-days. And, most importantly, his family is still giving me free bananas...

...and I'm still eating them.