I'm Back!

Bet you all thought I just up and quit the blog thing, huh?  Rest easy, that's not the case, life just got away from me for a bit.  I apologize to my most loyal followers (that's you, Grandpa!) and I don't forsee needing to take such a long blogging-hiatus ever again.  I'll do a quick re-cap of my last couple weeks in Uganda and then on to the US and Ecuador!

I headed out to a little village named Keyo to video a woman named Lucy making a 12-strand "zebra grass" necklace.  Barbara wants the footage to auction off the necklace with.  The zebra grass necklaces are my personal favorite.  And they're one of the most expensive, but after watching it be made, seeing how stinking long the process takes, I definitely think we don't pay these women nearly enough. 

Lucy also attempted to show me how to make the beads.  The finish products looked OK, but Fiona and Lucy laughed mercilessly at how large the hole was - it's like learning to drive a stick-shift - starting out is the hardest part.

Two things to learn about this culture from these photos:  anyone in any sort of leadership position sits in a chair while everyone else sits on the ground on mats.  I know it would be considered quite rude if I didn't at least start out in the chair they've provided me, but I always feel really awkward up there so I end up on the mats by the end of whatever I'm doing.  Also, the Acholi are a gift giving people - almost always giving the visitor some kind of gift, usually food, often soda.  In this case, unripe mangos.  I've seen kids sucking them down for weeks now, and I finally was given my own to try.  And man that thing is SOUR.  Again I was laughed at mercilessly for the puckered faces I involuntarily made.  I understand now why it's just the kids that eat them!  The good news is, when I get back from the Galapagos, the mangos will be in season and they are everywhere.  I can't wait to walk outside everyday and pick myself a mango!

I've been meaning to visit St Jude's Orphanage out here since I arrived, and after things got so busy I decided I had to stop waiting for a day with nothing else to do, I just had to do it.  It's the largest orphanage in Northern Uganda, and they run a primary school right next door, though unfortunately, they don't have a secondary school.  But, there is this amazing woman in Seattle named Suzy who orders large amounts of jewelry from my women a few times a year.  She sells the necklaces in America and sends all the proceeds back to Uganda to pay for orphan's secondary school fees.  She doesn't pay herself or anyone who works with her, amazing right?  I'm constantly stunned by the good people of the world.  Obviously she can't pay for every child at the orphanage, but I think she is making an awesome difference.

When I got to St Jude's, the little guys just came right on up to me, grabbed my hand and walked around with me while one of the "mothers" gave me a tour.  Later, I grabbed a couple books and started to read stories to a few kids, and the next thing I know, I had 14 kids climbing on me like I'm a jungle gym, and another 30 are fighting over the books that were brought out.  Needless to say, quality story time was a major fail, but it was fun anyway.  

I also spent a number of afternoons taking step-by-step pictures of Sarah making a necklace.  Sarah is the woman with me in Ecuador, and the organization responsible for the trip, wanted a booklet showing how the beading process is done for the artisans to refer to once we've left.  Sarah works quickly - she's good at what she does - but no matter how many times I explained, "I'm going to say 'pause' and you hold the position so I can take a photo," it didn't work.  I tried "pause," "freeze," and plain "STOP!" but she just kept on going. This made the picture-taking process a very long one, but I laughed a lot along the way, so it was OK.  Finally, we had all the pictures we needed.






What made my last week the craziest was that I had my first-ever, all-on-my-own, full-on Market Days with all six co-ops of women.  The Market Days consisted of two large orders (one from Barbara and the other from Suzy - the saint-like lady in Seattle paying for orphan's school fees) and I had to get them in suitcases before I left for Kampala on Sunday.  Suzy's husband, son and father were in Gulu for a week and they were supposed to take all the beads back with them.  It was a tight schedule for the women because the order came a bit late considering it's size, so I pushed the market days back as far as I could to give them more time and ended up doing two Market Days a day the three days before I left Gulu.  Suzy's family came with me to half the market days and it was fun to have them along.  Bruce, the father, is a photographer and he snapped a ton of pictures with his amazing camera.  Since I was slightly overwhelmed that week, I didn't take many pictures, thinking I would just get his from him.  That just means I don't get to put many up here, unfortunately. 

I did snap this one of Benson, the son, in the back of the car.  We were all heading up to Pabbo - the three of them in a car and Fiona and myself on the back of motorbikes, when they pulled us over and suggested we all ride in the car together.  Benson was more than happy, rather excited really, about giving up his seat to climb in the back of the car.  I consented, paid our motorbike taxi-drivers (called boda drivers) for their time and we squished in the car.  Pabbo is far away however, and though Benson never once complained, his enthusiasm for riding in the back diminished quickly on those rough roads.  I can't say he was nearly as eager to climb in the hatchback on the way home....poor kid.  He was a trooper though.

Somehow, we finished six Market Days in the 72 hours before I left.  Between the Market Days , several meetings, and making sure all the loose ends were tied up and things were ready for Sarah and me to fly around the world, I hardly felt like I had time to breathe.  I also got a cold that I just could not kick - pretty sure it came from from one of the adorably unhealthy children at the orphanage.  But, as it always does, Sunday came and I had to get myself to Kampala. After church I hitched a ride with one of Janet's (the lady I live with) family members who was on his way south.  It was quite eventful....he ran out of gas on the way and had no money to buy any.  He tried to convince me to just take a taxi the rest of the way, but instead I just paid his gas and we continued on.  I have no idea what he would have done had I not been there, I have no idea what he was thinking making the trip with out enough gas and no money.....  Eventually I made it - oh and I saw these on the way.  Just hanging out on the road.

Once in Kampala I stayed with the friend of a friend in his enormous house on his enormous spare bed with a thick comforter and five pillows.  Since I was still sick, my head felt like it weighed around 832 lbs, and I was exhausted from the previous week and especially from the 16 hour day I'd had on Saturday, I thought I was in some corner of heaven as I laid down and fell asleep in no time flat.

And for those of you curious, no it was not malaria.  I had my blood tested, just to be sure.  It came back negative, and miraculously, I woke up from that glorious night's sleep feeing 90% better.