Pepto, Man's Best Friend

On Monday afternoon Lindsi and I talked about the PWD project (she and Ashley Ward are now leads with me). I’m so stoked to have them leading with me, they’re such amazing girls and I know this will help this project SO much. Lindsi’s bags finally got here (they were stuck in London), poor girl! In her bags she had all our shirts for the caregivers. I’m so excited because they turned out so dang cute! They are green with HELP International on the front and Tulabirira Est. 2008 on the back. P.s. tulabirira means we care and this is the name of our PWD group that we are establishing. We are giving each caregiver and HELP volunteer a shirt so that we look like a unified team. I did a little bit of laundry and then at four we went to a local women’s group here in Nakassede. It was our first time meeting with this group and not one could speak a lick of English so it was rather interesting. We tried our best to teach them some basic English. They responded really well and enjoyed the lesson, I really hope that everything sunk in. On my way home I stopped by my friend Sarah’s shop and got some nice little goodies for my nephew and niece to be, they’re amazing and I’m SO stoked! We came back home and tried to plan our weekend. We had a lovely meal as usual. I received a lovely midnight snack care of my sweet friend Ivan (a local guy about 14 yrs. old that lives nearby and helps us all around the town). He knows that I have a slight maize obsession and so he brought me some maize with my name (Lailey (sweety), I totally felt like Kesha haha). What a sweet boy! Most of the night owls have moved to Deo’s house and so our house has sort of become the grandma house. We all love our sleep way too much and we go to bed super early.

On Tuesday morning most people went to the bakery. I stayed at the house and prepared things for my home visit later that morning. My stomach was feeling kinda uneasy so I took some Pepto hoping that would help. Tori, Lindsi, and I went for our home visits. We met with our caretaker Susan at the Intercession Church. We gave her the caretaker shirt and she was SO excited. We went to our first house (Sam). We met at his house and got a feel for his situation. I am seriously in love with that boy! After that we went to visit Sheilla and her mother. I talked to Susan the entire way, she is one of the most loving and amazing people I’ve ever met in my life. Sheilla’s mom was very happy to have us and we got a feel for their situation as well. Sheilla was born normal but after an infection with Malaria at 3 months old she went downhill rapidly. She now is totally mentally handicapped and cannot use her right arm. She is one of the happiest and friendliest girls ever. She wanted to come to our next visit and she held my hand the entire way. When we got to Fiona’s house she was there, but her mother was away. We talked to Fiona for a bit but then left. My stomach was still killing me and I didn’t know how much longer I was gonna last. Susan wanted us to come by her house and meet her daughter. On the way we stopped by to see if Shem (Faith’s son) was home. He makes these amazing cloth wall hangings and I really want to take one home. He is hands down one of the most amazing artists you could ever imagine and he freakin’ taught himself, what the heck why can’t I be that talented? I was sad because he wasn’t there but we got to look at his wall hanging and they were beautiful, I can’t wait to get one. We got to Susan’s and met her daughter, Jemima Cynthia. She was a doll! The house was very nice. She showed us some photo albums from her introduction and wedding. While we were looking at the photos Susan brought us some Jackfruit (which makes me sick even when I feel good). I couldn’t offend her so I took one for the team and tried to eat it as quickly as possible. After chatting for a little longer we thanked her and headed on our way. I was feeling super sick by this point and just wanted to get home ASAP. We got back to the house and I ran straight for my bed. I took a nap for a few hours and felt pretty weak the rest of the night. At about 7:30 we had a yummy dinner but my stomach was still kinda uneasy so I didn’t eat as much as usual. After dinner we went to Deo’s house (the other HELP house) to have our meeting. We try to split meetings between the houses so one group isn’t always having to be the ones walking to the meetings. It was a gorgeous night and we all sat out on a huge balcony for the meeting. After the meeting we sang and had cake for DJ’s birthday. We had fun sitting around and chatting and enjoying the nice evening temperatures. After most people left a small group of us played a dancing games that is absolutely hilarious. Deo came home while we were playing and his dance move was the bend and snap. I never thought I’d see the mayor of Lugazi doing a nice little bend and snap.

This morning I was feeling a little better but still had to chug a bit of Pepto (I have almost downed half the bottle….) I found a new delicious breakfast at Simple Market, oatmeal with fresh cut bananas mmmm such a great find! At 8:30 a few of us went to Ssanyu Primary School to observe teachers (on Friday we’re doing a teacher’s training). Lindsi and I watched lower primary. There was 50 four-year old kids for one teacher. Bless her heart, I can’t imagine trying to manage that class. She did the best she could but really not much was accomplished in the day.