Just the beginning!

As my time here really begins to dwindle, I’m trying to reflect on all that I’ve experienced here, but I find myself overwhelmed. I’ve experienced and learned so much, I really don’t know how to sort out all my thoughts and feelings! I’m not sure that I will ever truly have a full grasp on how I feel about everything that has happened here, but I am really looking forward to sharing experiences with the other Sarlo interns while we finish up our research papers in the Fall. I think that talking about it with others who had similar experiences will help me digest a lot of what has happened here. I miss our Nica girls! (half of the Sarlo Scholars crew is doing the same program, just in Nicaragua).

My birthday was a rollercoaster! Ha not, really, just filled with lots of fun, some food poisoning and good people. On Saturday night we went back out to the beautiful NRE campsite. I decided to get a rollex (eggs and cabbage rolled up in chapatti) from a chapatti stand on the street and that's what did me in, I was sick for awhile after that. But, Bethany and Caroline cooked us an amazing dinner on Sunday night and we had a delicious cake from Ozzie’s. Yeah, wasn’t expecting the food poisoning, but hey it happens and I still managed to eat the birthday dinner and make it to the pool yesterday (tough life I know).

Now, it’s SERIOUS go time. I just realized that my draft final report is due tomorrow (with all the birthday celebratin’ it must have slipped my mind…) and next week is my last week to implement my workplan. On next Tuesday I have my final interview when my workplan and all the messy budget stuff is due, along with our final dinner with our host families! So crazy how fast it is all going. The group is currently going through their business management training and I’ll still be working with and visiting the Twezimbe PHA Group during my last week, but only part of our FSD intern group will still be here. I can’t believe it’s almost over…so surreal. I don’t know what I am going to do with myself in the States, but over this past weekend I was finally able to accept(and begin to appreciate) my return on August 14^th. I have definitely been in denial, but writing my final report and saying goodbye to the interns with shorter programs is forcing me to acknowledge the fact of the matter, that all good things must come to an end.

But, really that saying does not entirely apply to my situation because me leaving Uganda isn’t really an end at all-it’s just a beginning. The group’s business will just be officially opening during my last week and I’ll get to hear about its progress from the States. And as far as me leaving Uganda..well yes for the time being-but I will be coming back! This trip is just a beginning to many years of the Twezimbe group’s soap business and to my future travels and work. Plus there is still 16 days left-plenty of time to continue enjoying “being here now.”

“Well the worst thing that could happen, but that won’t happen, would be if someone fell out of the raft BEFORE going down the 15 foot waterfall…”

Yea that’s right we finally did it-grade 5 rafting on the River Nile. In this picture I'm in the front, legs in the air, already head deep in water...and this was one of the kinder flips. All I can really say is it did not disappoint, we had all the spills and thrills we could ever want (and possibly ever need again in a lifetime). And as for the title of the blog-that’s what our raft guide Rich told us (Team Frisco+ Patrick) as we stared at the water dropping over the 15ft ledge that our raft was about to go down. And low and behold, Jap, our barley 100 lbs little baby fell out….right before we went over the waterfall. Naturally, Rich ripped Jap back into the raft with one arm, while somehow managing to paddle our entire raft (which terrifyingly was currently going down the waterfall backwards) a full 180 degrees with his other arm. So there we were, crying tears of fear and joy, while watching Rich’s body fly over our heads and over the 15ft waterfall, since he personally did not have time to hold onto the raft after all of his heroism. The picture to the left is Jap desperately reaching for Rich, which is hilarious because he's clearly way too far away to be helped. Ha, so that may or may not be an incredibly dramatic account of what actually happened…but that is pretty much what it felt like when I was sitting in the raft plummeting over that godforsaken waterfall. And, we later found out that our concerns were valid, a girl in another raft dislocated her shoulder and then broke the dislocated arm on the same drop right before we went. Like I said, rafting was fun…but I think I’m more of a grade 1-2 person. I like rafting that largely involves sunbathing and a few friendly bumps, not kind where the entire raft flips over and flings your helpless body into rapids the size of massive waves. All in all, I am really happy we went-got rafting on the White Nile and rafting grade 5 rapids checked off my bucket list-never need to do it again.

Other good things that happened over the weekend? On Saturday I headed out to Nyenga to join the group for the cutting and packaging of our first batch of soap (which was supposed to happen earlier, but it wasn’t dry enough to package yet). It was very exciting to see the finished project. The Treasurer, Monica, has already started selling some bars at TASO this past Monday.

Freshly cut soap bars! The group with the first packaged bars of soap

I also went to Nyenga today because I went to go visit the Chairwoman, Lovisa’s elementary school class and Monica’s home. The class was full of 73 of the cutest faces I have ever seen. Lovisa teaches P1 which I think is similar to first or second grade. They sang welcome songs and were just ridiculously adorable in their little dresses, checkered shirts and ties-could melt the heart of the Grinch or maybe even Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney (I may be on to something here). Monica of course was super sweet and sent me home with some delicious sweet bananas, eggplant, peppers, onions and tomatoes. I’m just busy finishing up preparing for the business management skills workshop that we’ll be attending next week since the grant got fully funded. It was actually worth the torture. Yea Twezimbe!

Saturday was also the two year memorial of my dad’s passing. I watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen since my I’ve been here, which is no surprise for any of you who knew my dad, it makes total sense. This picture does not do it any justice, but when has a photograph ever done a good job of capturing a sunset?

I’m looking forward to my big 21 on Monday! I’ll be going to the business training until the afternoon, but then it’s all about lounging at the Nile Resort poolside, eating delicious bread, fruit and probably some apple pie a la mode (come on I gotta it’s my birthday). Monday, the 26^th is also Jap’s birthday so the two of us will be doing it real B-I-G. haha During the evening the other interns are cooking a garlic filled Italian dinner which we will all savor before indulging in some chocolate cake and drinks. I am PUMPED. Something other than Ugandan food (even though I love it), good friends and what will surely be some good times.

It’s been a marvelous 21 years on this earth, mainly because I happen to have so many wonderful people that I get to spend my time with. Love and miss you all!

Sipi Falls and chapatti-a good weekend indeed

Wow! It’s been a while since my last post, which of course means a ton of stuff has happened, but I’ll just give you the goods. I actually haven’t been posting because I had a 10 page single-spaced monster of a grant dominating my life. But, I turned it in on Thursday, so it’s done forever! YAY

Just got back from a wonderful retreat to Sipi Falls in the more eastern part of Uganda, a bit past Mbale. The eight of us interns, PC’s Jonan and Kirsten and Kirsten’s friend Emily came. We stayed in cabin’s at The Crow’s Nest which over looked a beautiful valley all the way to the falls. The first night we got in fairly late, so we just ate dinner, played some cards and hit the sack. The next day we were all up bright and early to eat some breakfast and head to the falls. The hike was fun, a lot of uphill through mud on the way up, a lot of downhill through mud on the way down-it was a nice little reminder of the lack of exercise I’ve been getting here. The falls were beautiful, and there were amazing plants and animals everywhere. I saw and chewed on a fresh coffee bean for the first time. It tasted like any other plant, but it was still cool.

We headed down from the falls and back up the main road to enjoy a delicious local lunch at a roadside restaurant. We all weren’t really sure if the food was so delicious because we were all so hungry, or if it actually was that good. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed it-all of my faves- matooke, posho, rice, beans, greens, avocado and my absolute favorite-chapatti! After lunch we walked back up the cabins for a little more r&r before some intense games of Uno and going to bed at the obscenely late hour of 9:30pm (joking).

It was a very enjoyable trip and I’m happy to have been able to be there with all the swell peeps here. Now we’re all resting up before heading to dinner and then to the World Cup 2010 FINAL. WOOO Espana!

The project is on the rise! Flood Herbal Soap-coming soon to a Ugandan Market near you. We may be vending at a big fair this week, I’ll update more soon! And instead of putting a bunch of pictures of Sipi up, except for this one with me making a funny face since I figure it's more realistic than one with me smiling, I’m just gonna put up some pics of the typical food I’m eating here. I am loving it more every day.

Flood Herbal Soap-hot out of the molds!

So, it hasn’t been a week yet, but I am far too excited about the soap project to wait! We held the soap making workshops this past Tuesday and Wednesday and they were a great success. Not only do I feel much more bonded with the group, I’m more hopeful that this project will really enhance the group’s ability to attain their greater goal of opening a business. The past few days I have absorbed a lot. The undying generosity and kindness of the group, their willingness to learn and work hard, experiencing life in a rural village…a lot! The chairperson of the group gave me a beautiful basket she weaved with delicious passion fruit as a sign of gratitude for my work on the project, which is ironic, because they’ve done all the hard labor-I just facilitate…if that. Just an example of how ridiculously appreciative and sweet the Twezimbe group is.

The herbal soap is made!! The soap making instructor taught us all the different herbs we can find in the bush that help many different types of skin rashes and irritations-everything from scabies, rashes, ringworm...but we'll be selling it mainly to other HIV/AIDS patients at clinics as medicinal soap for the skin rashes and spots that are common among those who are positive. The group went out to the bush and within a couple hours collected 22 different herbs to include in the soap-everything from nimu tree, to avocado leaves, to papaya leaves to aloe vera (and many more with Lugandan names that I don’t know in English). Then we crushed the herbs, boiled them for hours, sieved the water, then melted pre made soap bars and candle wax into the water. The end product-herbal soap-sustainable, made with love, and ready to be sold.

The next step is packaging and selling, which we will be doing next week! Gotta finish up my grant and get on making some labels…which reminds me. The group insisted that I name the soap, but I refused because I insisted that the soap is their product and that they should name it-they decided it would be named “Flood.” So we’ll be selling “Flood” soap haha ohh still doesn’t get old. The group also gave me an Ugandan name, Nakalerro, still not sure what it means, but if I find out, I’ll let you know. I have to get back to work on my grant-otherwise I’ll be up all night (which I probably will be anyways), but I could not be doing it for a better project, so it’s all good.



grindin the herbs!

straining the herbs to use the herb water

mixing the soap and herb water





the (almost) final product!