Hey everyone!!
I can't believe how much i'm falling in love with this place. This weekend 8 of us girls went to the most beautiful place in the world called Sipi Falls. It felt like we had died and gone to heaven. It all started with the adventure of actually getting there. When is there not a funny story when you're taking public transportation? So our taxi driver told us to get out of the vehicle and "foot" because we were crossing some bridge. It wasn't even a bridge.... We had already paid part of our fee b/c he needed gas money so i told him that we had already paid. he said that he would find us at the end of the "bridge." so 8 really white females trekked along with a ton of other africans on this "bridge" in the middle of nowhere. i really had to go to the bathroom so i decided to go along side of the road like everyone else here does. as soon as i got behind the blanket my friend was holding up, a bunch of africans huddled over by us with their corn and fruit and stared blankly at me with their heads cocked. it was really funny, but definitely enough motivation for me to wait to go to the restroom. we found our taxi driver and hopped back into the taxi on our way to sipi. this little village was no where near touristy as we were told. it was the quitest place i have ever been. once we finally got our lodging settled (it took a few hours because our original site was flooded with rain water) we were able to start our adventure. our campsite was on the edge of the most awesome cliff. our tour guide (this guy named fred who decided he had nothing better to do than take us all around his village) took us on a two and a half hour hike to three different water falls. let me add that our hike started after it poured rain for about 2 hours. so we were in mudd up to our ankles for the entire hike. of course i was the only one to fall on my face 3 times. haha. it was really cute, because we had a dog named captain who folllowed us on our hike the whole time, and even back to our campsite to put us to bed. we made dinner reservations at this resaurant on the side of the cliff that had the most breath taking view. we ate our four course meal while watching the african sunset. amazing. our meal started with onion soup with actual soft bread! then we had a vegetable frita (a doughy pancake thing), then came the main course which consisted of baked talapia fish and rice, then our meal was finished with a lemon pancake. it definitely wasn't american food, but it was a nice change. when we got back to our campsite we had a bonfire with the african guys who ran the site. they were our age, so it as fun to get to know them. They wanted us to sing to them and tell them stories. so we sang "a child's prayer" and i soloed "Pop" by N'SYNC. it was great. one of the guys sang us a love song that he wrote for a girl. i only remember the words "my little sexy butterfly." then we told scary stories. i contributed the blair witch story that i think i totally botched. we woke up the next day and went repelling of of a 300 foot waterfall!!!! totally awesome. it was nothing like climbing any of the rock walls i've climbed in utah. such an adrenaline rush! I will admit i might have shed a tear when we had to leave sipi. a piece of my heart will always be in sipi.
Yesterday was pretty eventful. We went to work with the physiotherapist at the hopital. The first patient i helped work on was this little 5 year old girl who had burns all over her hands. About a week ago she was staying with her aunt and she had eaten some food that she wasn't supposed to. So her aunt stuck her hands in a pot of boiling water. This little girl was so brave. I had to flex and extend her fingers in order to prevent her from getting any contractures. It was so tragic and extremely emotional. After we left the physiotherapy room, we went over to the "main theater" (the surgery room) to watch a cesarian section. Little did we know that this 19 year old young woman was giving birth to a still born. It was so emotional. It was hard to console her before the surgery. I just reassured her i would be there the whole time. It wasn't my ideal situatuation i would have liked to be in for my first surgery, but that's africa. It was a very interesting surgery. Cadavers are so different. no blood.... The young woman wasn't even allowed to see her baby. They took it away immediately to prepare it for burial. And this was still not the end of my emotionally draining day. We went around to the disabled people's homes in the village. The first lady we met had been stricken with polio when she was only 6 years old. She could only crawl on her hands and knees. She was amzing though. She has four children and is able to crawl to her garden and pick the food she needs to feed her family.
Anyway, things are going great, and I am reminded every day of how blessed i am to be here and have the opportunities to serve the people of uganda. I love you all and I am praying for you.
Paula: I miss you so much!!! I wish i would have seen you before i left, but hopefully i'll see you when i get back. I'll be getting back on the 12th of august. I am living with 15 other people in a very small house. this weekend we will be getting 8 more volunteers, which makes 24 people living in one house!! crazy, but fun. There are only 3 guys out of all of us. Being here has definitely reaffirmed in my mind that i will go into physical therapy. there is no way i can operate on people! The weather here is very humid and hot. I think i've gotten cold once, and theat was very early in the morning. My face is usually orange by the end of the day because of all the dust. Tony and Jimmy sound like they are making you very proud. they are such good kids. I love them! tell them i said that. i love that you and my mom still hang out like little teenagers. everyone needs that feeling in their life. I'm so glad that you're keeping updated with my blog. Things are wonderful here, and I hope it's the same for you and the family. Tell marge i love her and i say hi. love you!!!
Karen: It's so good to hear from you! I hope we get the chance to have another family dinner when i get back and before david leaves on his mission. I'm so excited to hear about my grandparents. I hope everything is well at home. I love you guys!
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