Finally Began Working

On Friday after I posted, we never did accomplish anything. No one came for the culverts (no has yet arrived) and no one came with fence materials or another odd-job we could do. Thus, Friday was pretty much a lazy day. We were able to go out for about an hour and a half into a neighboring village and ended up walking about halfway around the foothills of Mount Elgon and the associated mountains. As we walked out, I noticed that the farther out we went the less and less people had, the more children each household was taking care of, and the number of children with large bellies increased drastically (large bellies on young children is a common sign of malnutrition and undernourishment). However, the children were all excited to see us and many walked along behind or with us for a while - some singing and laughing to the tune playing on the guitar someone had brought as we walked.

Saturday was a day of many, many firsts for me. First off, I learned how to do laundry by hand with the help of Leah, one of the women on the compound we have hired to help us during out stay (she shows us how to cook, clean, and wash per standards of Africa while ensuring we are not sickened by the method). After washing my clothes by hand, I wonder first of all how I can dirty less clothes during the week (wear the same clothes more than once) and how the machines in the states ever manage to clean anything - there's no friction there!

After teaching us to do laundry, we were invited by Leah to attend an African wedding - one of her friends was getting married in Mbale. So, we all dressed up as much as possible for the wedding and set off down the road to use "public transportation" to get into town. Little did I know that public transportation meant I had to ride on the back of a motorbike with one other person and the driver all the way into town - on the paved and washed out roads - in a skirt. As apprehensive as I was about riding the motorbike, the boy in front of me was very good about making sure I knew when the bumps were coming and what-not, but the ride was amazing. It was the smoothest ride I've had since I got here and I was able to cool off as we rode into town. The wedding was very...boisterous and everyone had a great time. During the ceremony and the reception it seemed we were the main attraction and the photographers made sure to include us in many, many photographs. The wedding isn't something I would attend again, I don't think - a little too much for me - but it was a great experience.

The fourth of July was quite interesting here as well. A few people went into market to buy supplies including ingredients for guacamole, live chicken (to test out the grill of course), and other supplies for the meal. We invited Leah and the Japanese men working near here (the program they are working on is the Japanese equivalent to the Peace Corps and a three/four year committment. THey are teaching locals to cultivate rice and make handcrafts). After dinner - and succussfully using the grill - we played baseball out front using a rubber squeeze ball, a sugarcane bat, and wet cardboard for the bases. It was a lot of fun and I was able to take a lot of pictures.

Other things of note:
- Even in the dry season here it rains almost everyday and we all look forward to daytime rain: it means we halt working and the temperature drops a good ten degrees
- I've begun acclimating to the weather, it's no longer excessively hot during the heat of the day even if we are in the sun during the heat of the day and I'm cold at night when the temperature drops to sixty-ish degrees.
- A few people are beginning to show the first signs of traveler's diarrhea and other travel related illnesses. We aren't sure if stomachs are rebelling to eating the same food twice a day every day, if we ate something that wasn't properly cooked or boiled (at the wedding possibly), or if it's just a bug. We're hopeful it's just a bug as no one wants to get travelers diarrhea, but we shall see.
- Typical lunch/dinner: Rice or potatoes, beans, cabbage/cale/pocco, watermelon, pineapple, chipati, sometimes spaghetti, sometimes guacamole, and, of course, boiled water without any nutrients in it. If I didn't have my vitamin pills I would probably be very mineral deficient right now. After eating this food for a little over a week straight, it's starting to get old. Hopefully we'll splurge sometime soon and get some other food for varieties sake.
- We decided on traveling to Murchison Falls National Park for our travel week. Right now we are looking for a safari to suit our budget, number of people, and time-frame. We were hopeful to attend a backpackers safari that returned down the Nile but they only had four spaces left (we need eight). Hopefully we'll find something soon.

There's a long line of people waiting to use the computer and dinner is almost ready, so I'm signing off. Write again soon (if we have power and internet connectivity).