i fed a baboon

I am planning a trip to Gulu to hold business seminars with refugees who are relocating into villages. As Heidi and I were on our way to Kampala to meet with Hon. Betty, the MP for the Gulu district, our public taxi slowed as another taxi cross us head on and ran into the ditch. We saw the driver get out and run. All of the 20 people in our taxi looked worriedly at the passengers as they emerged from the taxi crash. One minute later our taxi approached a crowd of people. I stretched out the window and saw two little boys lying in the road surrounded by blood. They were dead. Heidi and I still have images of those boys in our minds.

Later that day in Kampala we ran into our friend Pascal who we met at the fruit market and who helps us find things when we are in Kampala. Let me tell you about Pascal. He is the flashiest dresser in Uganda. His clothes always have an image of money and some sort of metallic paint on the fabric. Somehow his shoes stay clean even on the dirt roads. He is an balla’. He talks to Heidi and I about his music career and how he is just about to make it big time. He is making a music video about racism and wants white girls in it. My dream of being a dancer in an African music video just might come true!

One night I was getting back late from a project and found everyone in the house acting rather odd. They told me to look at the bathroom. I walked in and found that the sink was gone. I turned to the girl’s room and found Hiedi laying face down on the bed with her butt exposed and Corbin leaned over her with a gloved hand bracing a syringe.

Choking back laughs they told me this story: Amber, Heidi, and Tori were looking at Amber’s arm which she had injured a few days earlier. They started laughing hysterically, to the point that all three girls had to pee. I think it should be said that I have never met a group of girls with such little bladder control in my life. They all ran to the bathroom. Amber took the toilet, Tori peed in the bathtub, and Heidi just peed her pants. All continued to laugh uncontrollably. Heidi backup and rested her hand on the sink which pulled out of the wall and crashed to the ground in pieces. Heidi landed right on top of it. The house burst into chaos as everyone scrabbled to stop the bathroom from flooded as burning hot water shot from the wall. In the confusion Heidi didn’t realize that he had cut her butt until she had bled quite a bit.

Amber says that Heidi’s face went sheet white and they escorted her to the bed. Tori and Corbin went to work as doctor and nurse.

By the time I got there, everything was cleaned up, but it was clear that Heidi would need stitches. She saw our Australian doctor the next day – who probably thinks we are absolutely ridiculous by now. The whole episode was hilarious and has spawned priceless jokes about Heidi’s crack.

Our second wave of volunteers arrived Thursday 12^th. They are great. We have 3 siblings that have come Linsi, Katie, and DJ; A really great girl named Kelsi, who is DJ’s girlfriend; And three additional girls, Stephanie Christiansen, Tori Griffith and Ashley Ward. I absolutely love the new volunteers. They came with so much drive and have started some really cool projects.

One week after the new volunteers arrived I left for Tanzania for a week. It was an amazing break. We stayed in a hostel for 3 nights which had hot showers, free internet, nice couches, a restaurant… it was really nice. We were on safari for four nights and we stayed in tents. One morning we woke up with a giraffe outside our tent and another morning there was a small group of zebra grazing not 15 feet away. Even though the luxury was great, it was really hard for me to leave Lugazi, the projects, and my volunteers for so long. I have become really attached to this place, and I was really happy to get back.

Tanzania is an incredible country. As you can see from the pictures below, it is much dryer than Uganda. It looks much more like your typical picture of Africa.

We went on a hike around Kilimanjaro which ended in a gorgeous waterfall. On the way back we had to walk down a steep muddy road that had been soaked from a heavy rain. The ground was sticky and almost every single one of us fell, covering ourselves in mud. The locals thought it was hilarious and were laughing hysterically at us.

We also went to a Masai village and met an indigenous tribe (see photos below).

And… of course we went on Safari and saw all the animals. A baboon ate out of my hand. We saw a loin kill a pumba. I bought a knife of a Masai boy that we ran into….it still has blood on it!!!!