Spider island and bald heads

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  Jinja, Uganda
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

empata means bald head in lusuga. 

do you believe that i shaved my head?!

this weekend i went to jinja to have the ride of my life on the nile river!  it was insane!!!!!  we rode to jinja in a taxi full of twenty people and a chicken.  the classic experiences of being in uganda will probably be the things i miss the most in five weeks.  the nile was huge and so powerful... we went through four class five rapids and survived a crazy storm.  our raft was full of myself and four other eli volunteers, two men from paris, and our new zealand guide.  i think we were swimming nine times.  at one point this really crazy storm rushed in and we lost sight of the other rafts, i jokingly said that we should flip our raft and go underneath it and i think the guide secretly was freaking out because he said that was a good idea and we did it.  but we did it on spider island (that is what i dubbed it).  i think i would have rather been out on the water getting pelted with hail then on this island.  there were spiders, leeches, centipedes, and who knows what crawling all over us.  i tried to keep my cool but anybody who knows me knows i hate spiders.  after we survived that i pointed to bird island and suggested that next time we go there only to find out it really was bat island.  sick.  at one point the guide gave us an option of going three ways down the rapid and we chose the flying squirrel where everybody went to the back of the boat except me and i was flung into raging waters... everybody was flung into them.  the raft landed ontop of me but i had it the best because everybody else had to bypass rocks.  we went down a sixteen foot waterfall!  the last rapid was as big as a house, it was called the bad place.  it was pretty amazing.  we ended with a foot injury from rocks, a twisted ankle, and i lost half of my big toenail (seems to be the cool thing to do lately) but we survived and are ready to do it again. our ride back to the real world was exhaust filled but i got to rinse my feet in a hot shower (first hot water for three weeks) and we ate lots of great food! 

on saturday morning we made our family breakfast and lunch.  i made swedish pancakes and leah and andrea made speghetti.  i dont really think they loved it but it was all eaten.  there were around forty people we had to serve.  ugandans have big families and when they found out that the mazungus were cooking they all came out of the wood work.  

today i watched another birth.  i will spare the details for beth but it was pretty crazy.  i feel totally unprepared for everything i have been witnessing.  beth, i do not want to be a surgeon... i think this is deterring me far from it.  i feel relief going back to the ear nose throat.  tomorrow i am taking sharon (little girl from the orphanage) back to the ent clinic with me.  today when i cleaned her ears it looked like somebody had farmer blown snot into her ears.  i witnessed two flies come out of little girls ears today in the ent.

the time here is blowing by quickly.  i think about you all often! especially baby g!!!  i hope all is well.   

so... last night i received a text message from beth and i realized that i did not follow through with my joke about the shaved head.  i have been tempted to shave off my golden locks but in fact i have not.  maybe i will though just to match baby gentry!  however, i did shave andrea's head a few days ago.  that is how much she trusts me.  our whole ugandan family was freaking out!  especially mama biti!  she and i had a little chase through the streets because she stole the scissors, keep in mind that she is nine months pregnant.  the mzungus won out though and we shaved andreas head!  her hair was probably six inches past her shoulders but now is maybe a milimeter long.  yesterday her entire class at the nursery school pointed and laughed at her, she has tough skin and a very well shaped head!  everybody on the street cant keep their eyes off our the bald mzungu.  yesterday i caught a man taking a picture of her with his camera phone so i whipped my camera out and snapped photos of him! 

it is hilarious to banter back and forth with the people here.  they all have such a sense of humor!  lately the kids have been getting more comfortable with me when i walk by their houses on my way to the orphanage and they all boldly and relentlessly ask me for money which unfortunately i do not have a lot of, so i have started asking them for shillings.  it is  hilarious to watch the looks on their faces!  they then either grab my hand and walk me a few streets or laugh and run into their houses.  it is going to be weird to be home in five weeks and not be a celebrity.  everywhere we go people yell mzungu byeeeee.  how are you? i am fiiine!  and then give me your money.  it is also hilarious to go running in the mornings.  i would ideally like to go when it is still dark outside to avoid the calls but honestly i dont wake up earlier enough (6:15 is my usual).  they all laugh and point or just stare with their heads turned.  the first day we all ran together (five mzungus) we sprinted up a hill and there was a crowd waiting for us and cheering. 

last night we made guacamole for our family with chapati! chapati is one of my favorite things here.  i always find something that i love to eat whenever i travel, usually it is chocolate but here it has been these greasy pancakey wonderful things.  our family loved the guac and kept saying i am learning when they watched us make it.  the avocados here are huge!  all the produce is great here. 

welp i have to get back to the hospital.  i walked with sharon earlier this morning for her ear check-up and just finished walking her back.  everybody was shocked when i carried her on my back and they kept yelling muuana! mzungu!  meaning that is your baby white girl?  which of course it isnt but i wish she was because she is darling.  she can shake her booty better than any five year old i have ever seen and she has a little bit of the crazy eye... she is cross eyed.  i am going to miss these kids.  they all yell sala whenever i am near to the orphanage and then bolt as fast and hard as they can into my legs.  i havent been knocked over yet but i think it is bound to happen. 

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