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