Cricket Invasion

See, this is what happens.  I give myself an inch and I take a mile.  Rather, I give myself a week, and I take a month.  I remember I made a scrap book when I was in middle school.  I would get together with my friend Marianne, and we would cut pictures, and color borders and glue mementos.  I was rather proud of it when I was finished.  And for the next four-ish years I saved everything for my *next* scrapbook.  Only I never even started that next scrap book.  Didn't even cut one photo.  But I felt guilty all. the. time. for not doing it.  Until one day I declared, "I am not a scrap booker!  I don't want to do this anymore!  I'm no longer saving napkins and ticket stubs! Forget it!"  And it was like this weight was lifted, and I was free.  Glorious.

I've thought about doing that with my blog.  Except, truth be told, I actually really like blogging.  It's fun for me to record what I'm doing, share it with other people, and it's really fun to look back on old posts and see the personal progress I've made (which probably isn't visible to anyone but me.)  So I'm going to try really hard not to make that same I-hate-scrap-booking declaration.  (Man, now I'm kind of excited to go home and dig out that old scrap book that I haven't looked at in over a decade.....)

So I've had a few exciting things happen since I last wrote.  Not as much as I would have liked.  Honestly, this last six months of my life have just been one big lesson in "You Don't Get Your Own Way."  Even when all signs lead to it going my way, it just kind of hasn't.  BUT, things have happened.  Just not as much or as fast as I would like.

First, I had a great meeting with Sister Rosemary - the director of St. Monica's (where they make the water-bottle houses.)  They really do seem to want just as many water bottles as possible.  They're building a gas station halfway between here and Juba (there isn't one currently) and they would like to use as many water bottle bricks as possible.  We talked a lot about needing consistent pick-up efforts on their part in order for this to work.  She agreed, and we worked out a way - they have a nursery school, and they have a driver and a van that goes around to pick up the kids every morning, and then the driver and the van often don't have anything to do until he takes the kids home.  So Wednesday mornings, after he safely gets the kids to school, he's safely going to get a bunch of bottles to the compound as well.  Brilliant.  Before, we were counting on the St Monica's driver and van - which often had prior engagements or things that would take precedence.   Then Sister Rosemary came out with me to pick up some loads of bottles.  She was amazed at how many bottles we got in just a few places.

Next, I had a very exciting meeting with Gulu's District Chairman, Martin Mapenduzi.  I don't know what the equivalent is back home....maybe the governor?  Anyway, I told him what I wanted to do, what I'd been trying to do, and how I was feeling a bit frustrated by it.  Once I finished my spiel he said, "Let me encourage you not to give up.  Gulu needs this right now."  He told me what I was trying to do, my efforts, were actually someone's job in Gulu, and that it just wasn't being done.  He wants me to meet with the municipal council and talk to them about my project, about ideas for what the city can do.  I'm a bit intimidated and nervous about such a meeting, but I'm excited by it.  I think the first thing I'm going to pitch is a town-center clean up.  The idea for which I got from Kampala City Yange (KCY.)

I stole this photo from KCY's facebook page....hope they won't mind!  

KCY is this awesome organization down in Kampala that I got to meet with last week.  Every last Saturday of the month they go to a different part of the city and do a massive clean up.  They get local celebrities and politicians, they hand out free t-shirts and play loud music to get the locals out, excited and ready to work.  Then they provide shovels and rakes and wheelbarrows and trucks to overhaul the garbage problem in that area and haul all the trash away to the landfill.  I want to try this in Gulu.  And I think it can be done.  Gulu doesn't have a landfill - but that's OK.  I'm going to try to convince the government to loan me a small patch of land.  We'll sort the garbage and recycle what we can, compost what we can, and then find a way to dispose of the rest as responsibly as we can.  Oh man, I'm excited about this.  Probably more excited than I should be, given that I have yet to talk to the local government about it.  So keep your fingers crossed for me, will you?

I'm heading back down to Kampala on Friday to participate in one of KCY's cleanups and experience just how it's all done.  Oh, and I'm going to run a 10K while I'm there.  I kind of hate running, but doing races is a lot more fun than just running, so why not?  So I'm making the promise right now that next week I'll post cleanup and race pictures.  PROMISE.

In other news, it has been attack of the crickets lately.  Thankfully it's getting much better, but for a while there, they came in droves.  They are big, they are black (so creepily spider-looking) and they are UGLY.  And they fly.  How does it get worse?  They try to get anywhere where there is light at nighttime.  And they fly aroung the room, circling like mad, jumping, flying at my head (they really like my hair for some reason.)    I will sit on my bed, under the mosquito net with the lights off and I can hear them flinging themselves into my windows.  The faint glow of my computer light is driving them mad.  I killed several before bed one night, killed about eight more in my room when I woke up the next morning, and then went into the bathroom and saw this.....Awesome.