Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Goin' down under

Ok, so I’m not actually going to Australia, the real down under, but I’m going to the southern most country in Africa, so it’s the African down under. That’s right, it’s official. I’m being sent to South Africa for more tests. As of right now, I’m doing just ok. I actually had a really good weekend until Sunday night, when I passed a kidney stone with the oh-so-powerful extra strength Ibuprofen. Yeah, in case you didn’t get that sarcasm, the Ibuprofen didn’t do anything but I survived. I went to the clinic yesterday, where they scanned my abdomen and showed me a nice picture of the rock that is slowly making its way through my urinary tract. The scan specialist and I actually have a relationship now because I’ve been going there so often. In fact, when she found the stone, she just started laughing and pointed it out to me. She asked my why they were so fond of me, to which I was thinking that the feeling is definitely not mutual. All I can say is that it’s not fair that I should have to go through pain that is supposed to be near to that of birthing a child and all I get is a stupid rock. What the heck am I supposed to do with a rock that is obviously too small to use as a weapon and would probably disintegrate upon contact? Anyway, I’m being shipped of on Thursday morning and I don’t have a date of return yet. Hopefully, they will be able to remove any more kidney stones that may be inhabiting my body and fix any other things that have decided to be difficult.
Ok, now for the more fun parts of the weekend. There was a Jica-PC event in Masaka this past weekend that was arranged and hosted by the volunteers. Jica is a Japanese volunteer organization that is very similar to PC. There are probably as many Jica volunteers in country as PCVs. On Saturday morning, there was a football (soccer) match. It was the most fun I’ve had in a while!! As someone who hasn’t been active for the past three weeks, I was a little nervous I’d be on the field for all of a minute before my lungs gave out. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my lungs were working pretty well and I was able to play in both halves of the games (not the whole time of course, come on, let’s be realistic here). For some of the time that I wasn’t playing, I acted as a ref. It’s always nice to have a whistle of power! After the football game, we played American football, powder puff style. I was QB, which BTW is a very stressful position to play, with people running at you while you have to find someone who’s open to throw the ball too and hope that the other team doesn’t realize that you tend to throw it to the same area every single time because you’re too stressed out to switch it up. The final sport of the day was baseball. I was going to sit this one out, and had even bathed, but I felt like they needed a left hander with no glove and a possible hand-eye coordination handicap. While we dominated football, the Jica’s dominated us in baseball. I was barefoot and the first time I ran to first base, I slipped, fell on my back and slid into the base. I like to think that from a distance, it looked like I purposely slid into the base in a cool, calm and collected way. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s how it happened; no way I fell, what with all the grace I posses! The day ended with a dance party. I did my thing on the dance floor and then proceeded to die around midnight or one (which is about 4 hours past my usual bedtime; ask any PCV and they will tell you that they are in bed by 8:30pm). I died because my body severely rejected and punished me for all the activity. I was sore for a couple of days and barely able to move. However, it was totally worth it and I’d do it again!! On Sunday, I just watched the ultimate frisbee game and proceeded to sun burn my forehead and nose. Yeah, apparently I still haven’t learned the importance applying sunscreen in an equitorial region. So, my nose is peeling, which is really annoying and slightly gross.
So, that’s what’s been happening/is happening now. Hopefully, I’ll get to a computer before Christmas, but if not, MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMASS!!! (or as we say it here, HAPPY CHRISTMAS!) Enjoy the snow if you have it and listen to many Christmas songs : ) Love and miss you guys! TTFN!!
~Rachael

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Good Food and exteneded Kampala Holiday

Hello All! This is me updating my blog before you think I’ve been swallowed up. So, I have good things and some not so good things but, no worries, everything will be A-OK!
First, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I celebrated it in Tororo with ~20 other volunteers. We had the magnificent feast on the Saturday following the actual holiday. I made apple pie, which is a holiday classic and tradition. There was no pie pan to be found, so my pie was actually baked in a square, glass casserole dish. Even though it was not round, the pie was very yummy. All the volunteers contributed a dish, so we had quite a feast. The final count was (homemade) mac-and-cheese, fried chicken, Amish bread, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed irish (regular) potatoes, vegetable kabobs, vegetable medley (I helped to cut the carrots! And then lied when they asked if I had washed them… they looked clean enough and nobody got sick!), and pumpkin-apple soup (absolutely delicious, it tasted almost like cider). Then, there was the dessert table. I had cheated and already used my second stomach, which most of you know I reserve for desserts, to get a second plate of mac-and-cheese, so I was bursting at the seams. However, Thanksgiving is all about eating until you want to die and then eating a little bit more until you actually die or fall into a food coma. Oh yeah, and being thankful too : ) Besides, one cannot pass up homemade desserts in this country because they are very few, far between and the smell alone makes you lose control. So, our dessert table had cheesecake with chocolate drizzled on it, apple pie, cherry pie, chocolate cake, brownies, frosting, and banana pudding with dolce de leche (which I’m pretty sure is French for caramel) topping. And, some very nice sangria was made, where I also helped in cutting the fruit for it. All in all, it felt like Thanksgiving. Everybody was in the kitchen, cooking, helping, washing or shouting. I couldn’t have asked for more and I’m very thankful for all the friends that I’ve made here. They have, truly, become my second family.
The term has officially ended and all my girls are back home for holiday. I gave my exams and graded them all before I had to go to Kampala. After grading them, and comparing them to the beginning of term exams, I was a little disappointed at first because they were a bit lower. I thought that maybe I hadn’t spent enough time teaching or that I had gone to fast. However, I ran into one of the students in my S1 math class. She asked me what the high score was and I told her. She was very impressed and said, “Well taught.” And that was all it took to lift me out of my funk. Really, the scores and the average of the students are not, and should not, be the only indicator of success. My girls are getting scores that they hadn’t gotten before. The high score in my class is higher than the average. I should be happy that the girls are really and truly trying. They are now comfortable enough with me that they ask questions when they don’t understand, as opposed to nodding absently. I have more girls participating in class then when I first began. So, even though the scores aren’t what I hoped for, this last term was still a success. I’m trying my best and so are the girls and that’s really all you can ask.
So, that’s the good stuff, now for the not so good. I’ve actually been in Kampala for the last week and a half for medical reasons. I originally came the weekend of the 21st to cheer people on in the annual Kampala marathon. The following Monday, I went to the PCMO (PC nurses) to get checked out because I had been having kidney pains. Now, I just had a UTI at the end of October, so I was expecting to just be given the drugs and go on my merry little way. That, however, was not meant to be. I will not go into the details because I don’t think you all are interested in the specificities of my body functions, but it was not a UTI and the pain in the kidneys has noticeably increased. But, they still do not know what it is. This, combined with a blood test and the fact that I have peed the entire rainbow (except for the most beloved colour yellow!) means that I am most likely (~90%) being sent to South Africa for more tests. Now, there’s no need to worry. Hopefully, I will be back here for Christmas, but I just wanted to give a general FYI. So, the good thing is that I get to tick another country off my list and I can investigate World Cup things.
So, that is what’s happening right now. I’ll let you all know if something changes but, I’m not dying and beside the kidney tenderness, I don’t feel sick at all. Hope you all enjoyed Black Friday shopping! As always, miss and love you all!!!
~Rachael