Holy Rock and Roll

The church next-door is about a football field away from my bedroom window, but sounds as though it is much closer. They have been building it since I moved in and have only put the roof on during the past week. I had high hopes that once the roof was on the volume would go down. It seems to be acting as an amplifier as the sun beats down on the corrugated tin. It is my destiny, it would seem, to live near a loud speaker when not in Colorado. Viet Nam, before after and during the war always had speakers that would announce the daily news that came on just outside my window. This would start at about 5 am with the national anthem; it must have been helpful to the comrades who did not have a radio or TV. Local community announcements were also made over the speaker as well as a few lost and found announcements. In the Middle East I was always near to a mosque, a real call to prayer is beautiful but a recorded one at full blast over a tinny speaker isn’t a great way to wake up in the morning. Then there was Ngoc Khanh in Ha Noi with a karaoke bar on either side of our house with competing songs by Korean’s or locals going full blast. Now I have a church. They gather on some weekdays and it sounds like a very wild party and sometimes almost like a disco. They are playing some pretty heavy “rock” music right now, this has been going on all day and doesn’t sound like it will let up any time soon. No idea if every single person within a mile belongs to this church or if they are just broadcasting for all of us. Whatever it is, they are loud but certainly seem to be having a very good time. It is already after 10 pm and they have been at this for about 12 hours and it doesn’t seem to be winding down at all. And no, I haven’t thought of going to join them. I fear it is way too lively for me! 

The power has been out so much of late that I don’t seem to ever be able to get caught up but have finally figured out that to try to do my lessons on the weekend will only leave me frustrated as the biggest power cut days seem to be on Saturday and Sunday. If I leave most of my work for Monday I accomplish more and don't get frustrated.  When the power came back on last night the fan blew a fuse but Douglas loaned me his as he said, “Ugandan people aren’t like you whites.” I am starting to become accustom to being called “you white’s.” You whites or just "whites" is used frequently and doesn't seem derogatory and I assume that it could be similar to you Westerners or Ferengi’s, Parangs, Feranges, Foreigners, Nguoi Nuoc Ngoai’s, etc. anywhere else.

When I applied to Seed I started following every single blog and would be so frustrated at volunteers who got in country and then didn’t write much at all about it. Here I am just a month into it and it seems I haven't written in ages. 

Classes are now in full swing and I have about 39 students in my class. I am still getting accustom to the lifting of eyebrows as a way of saying "yes." It is unique for me and I find it quite interesting and probably am starting to do it myself! 

To ask a question and not get a yes or no, just an eyebrow wag is definitely unusual, I am assuming it means “yes” or I am following you, or I agree. Wednesday has been "media" day but this week we begin working in the hospital.  I spent a fortune on data to download video’s to show the class that were filmed in low resource settings. It was going to be exciting or so I thought, Ugandan students watching childbirth in Kenya. It did not work out as well as I had hoped. Then I came across some DVD’s that Agnes had that were donated by one of the first GHSP volunteers. These are of regular US Nursing students in the clinical setting. The students seem to love these DVD’s. They are tuned into how inquisitive the student nurses are with the nurse educator, how they ask questions, how they do not hesitate to say “I don’t know how to do that” and how many times they wash the hands and how politely they approach the patients. So would have thought?

Irene from GHSP came up from Kampala to make sure that I am still among the living, It was great to meet with someone that I have known for a few months and we had a nice talk, we met at the University in my office and then she came to the house. She was nice to talk to and I had met her during our Orientation so it was good to see a familiar face. My first box that Sue sent to me in c/o PC in Kampala still has not reached but the one that she sent directly here to Lira did. Christmas!! It was so exciting to at last have some respectable skirts to wear to the University. However, just about the time I got skirts a few faculty members started wearing slacks so now I am also wearing black well made trousers and appear to be able to teach just fine in them. I continue to get weekly calls from GHSP in Boston, we always seem to find lot’s to talk about. I have told them that I am starting at the hospital and made arrangements to talk with Julie after that. I cannot say what my reaction will be to the shortages or to what I saw when I was here during my homestay, perhaps it will look more "normal" now. Lira has started to feel very much like home so I might see this differently. 

My home situation is good. Janet is still here most of the time although she took an extended trip back to her village and then proceeded to call me every single day and tell me that she was returning the next day, and then did not. Finally when she did come back I asked her why she always said she was coming back the next day and she said she just called me so she could hear my voice and she wanted me to be happy. Oh. I understand? You had no intentions of returning but thought it would make me happy to hear that you were coming back so you said you were! that makes perfect sense. No matter what though I really love this kid. She is very funny and I usually tell her she is behaving like a mother hen. The hardest days for me are the ones when we have no power but I am managing.  I mentioned that in India we call it "load shedding" and was told, "In Uganda we call it load shedding, too." So here's to LS 

I have found a man who spent about 15 years working with Indian’s here in Lira who loves to help me out sometimes making smoothies and chai and he made paneer and I showed him a recipe for Uttupam and we made it. I am eating better now then I have in ages. Yeah! My car situation is a work in progress and not in a good way. The car is fine but some small problems with the pilot that I must work out.

The power outages do not seem to have bothered the church as they have plenty of loud speakers, not sure if they have a generator or maybe they just have a direct source.

ONE MORE WEEK until I start making some racket of my own! Seems very hard to believe that it is already Labor Day Weekend.