Thursday, September 24, 2009

Thursday, September 24, 2009

 

Well that didn’t take long.  No more coffee - today when I plugged in the coffee grinder it started smoking and then it broke.  Sigh.

Today I visited Busiro SS with Constance, one of our mentors.  Constance came over at 2:00 and we set off on our 3-hour journey.  On the matatu towards Kampala Constance told me both her parents were dead.  Having one or both parent’s dead seems commonplace here.  Sad.

We got into Kampala and went to a restaurant in New Taxi Park (not to be confused with Old Taxi Park).  I wasn’t hungry but ordered beans and rice so as not to offend Constance.  That turned out to be a mistake…not long after I bit into my lovely rice and beans platter I bit onto something hard.  I thought I broke my tooth, but fortunately I broke the ROCK that was in my rice! 

  What?! 

Constance said, “Yeah, sometimes there are pebbles in the rice.  They don’t sort it.”

Umm, okay.

The waitress walked over.  Constance was already mad at her because she charged me mzungu prices on my dish (an extra 500 shillings), so she said to the waitress, “You have stones in your rice!”  The waitress didn’t look too concerned…I didn’t finish my meal and we walked out.

The New Taxi Park is just as insane as the Old Taxi Park.  Vans battled with each other, squirming, slithering and blowing exhaust and dust all over the place.  People walked around selling everything from cell phone minutes to multi-colored  blocks of soap.  I felt bad for the poor walking vendors – constantly preying upon blank stares and deaf ears…and then going to the next van in the hopes that someone there will need a toothbrush or other knick-knack.

Outside the city we saw cows eating trash and monkeys (the first I’ve seen!) playing around on the side of the road.  There were also men standing in stagnant water pools…which is a HUGE no no in Uganda.  You can get bilharzia just by dipping your toe in stagnant water.  It’s a horrible disease and I felt bad because all these men cleaning their boda’s in the water simply didn’t know any better.

 

What is bilharzia you ask?

Bilharzia is a human disease caused by parasitic worms called Schistosomes. Over one billion humans are at risk worldwide and approximately 300 millions are infected. Bilharzia is common in the tropics where ponds, streams and irrigation canals harbor bilharzia-transmitting snails. Parasite larvae develop in snails from which they infect humans, their definitive host, in which they mature and reproduce.

 

The matatu was PACKED.  It can legally carry 14 people…there were 25 by my count at one point.  Think about that for a second.  25 people in a van – seems impossible until people start sitting on the floor…and each other’s lap.  I had to sit with a bale of hay on my lap (the woman next to me brought it on board).

We arrived in Busiro 2 hours later.  It is the most rural place I think I have ever been.  I cannot remember ever being further away from home than at that point.  As we walked to the school we passed anthills that were probably 12 – 14 feet high.  Constance told me the ants probably have been building that hill for years.

The classroom was simple with no windows and a steel roof.  On the desks was a circa 1970’s book on entrepreneurship…cow’s moos, chickens cluckles goat’s baa’s wafted through the wooden shutters.

Getting tired now…will finish up quickly.

During the lesson the teacher listed the local problems facing the communities of Busiro.  I jotted a few of them down:

- Child sacrifice (WHAT?!)

- Water scarcity (this particular school didn’t have access to clean water)

- School burning

(Mom…show that you your 6^th grade kids.  Remind them they don’t have to worry about CHILD SACRIFICE and SCHOOL BURNING…life ain’t that bad)

Each day we read a speech to the class.  Here is the speech from today:

 

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

- Marianne Williamson