The One Where I become a Witch

It is sometimes hard to get the motivation to update this. You know it would be a lot easier for you all to just come here and observe for yourself, but then what would be the point of a blog?

This place gets crazier and crazier. But it’s funny and I love it!!

So I was talking with one of my sisters the other day. I asked her when Stella, my other sister, is due to give birth. She goes “Michelle, If I didn’t know you, I would think you are a witch.” I was taken aback by this and asked why? She told me because I know so much and in this culture, if you know a lot you are presumed to be a witch. I am an observer so when I see things I will later ask about them and my sister always asks me how I know that? I just give my simple answer of “I know everything” but now she really thinks I do know everything. Now, she always goes “Michelle, You know everything, you KNOW everything!!” I find this hilarious. I mean come on people, she is due in marchish. It’s kind of obvious she is preggo. Apparently, I knew before mama though. And yes, Thea, they do know where babies come from. [I told her this story on the phone the other day and my mom asked that question, I thought it quite funny.]

The road rules here go: the biggest wins! Semis, buses, trucks, vans, cars, boda bodas (motorcycles), bikes, pedestrians, and then livestock. You seriously have to be careful, the drivers are crazy! The other day my papa was driving us somewhere and as he was turning the corner, someone was in the way and he hit them!! I was mortified! But my dad just kept going! Before your imagination gets away from you, let me first tell you he hit the passenger’s side (America’s drivers side) and of course I was sitting there. I was ready to get out and see if he was all right but nope, papa just kept driving. I did turn around and watch and he was fine. He just kept walking. No one said anything either. And papa barely noticed. In America, you would get sued!

So there are these kittens around the house and as much as I hate them, (I have realized I really don’t like cats) I like them being around because they eat things like cockroaches. In fact, I was just watching one eat a rat bigger than it! It was disgusting and I have no clue how it caught it but dang that cat has talent.

I have a 30 minute walk and there are 3 certain spots where I have gotten to know some kids. I stop and play soccer with some for about 10 minutes then another place where a bunch walk up the road with me, and the final spot where 3 little girls would walk me home, but the 3 has multiplied to 8. And when I get home, I do the chicken dance and do father Abraham in the front yard with them. Everyday more and more kids come. Yesterday there were about 20 kids. Then they all tried to come into the courtyard with me. I had to force them away. I have fun with them but they are starting to push it too far.

I thought my brother Mike lived with us but then now I don’t know. Some days he stays here and some days he doesn’t. It’s confusing me! I asked about it and was told he lives here, but then someone else told me he lives somewhere else. I don’t even know if they know!

My brother, Sister, native friend Suzan, Geoff (fellow USPer) and his brother all went to Kampala on Saturday. We went to the Ugandan version of So you think you can dance, only hip hop style. It was pretty awesome! They have some serious talent. They were all break-dancing it up! The bummer part is it was outside and blazing hot! I got dehydrated and I hadn’t eaten anything all day so we left a little early and went to a more American version restaurant and I ate a salad! It was so good! and very exciting to have veggies and something different! But it didn’t help me feel better. The entire ride home in a mutatu van that fits 15 people but they stuff as many that will fit – their public transport system where they try to sell you rides, quite funny – made things worse. I got car sick and the only thing I could think of was how miserable I was and wanted my mom and America! When we FINALLY got home, I went straight to bed and slept through church.
I wasn’t feeling fully better but well enough to where Sarah and I decided to cook dinner for the family. We went to town and the market and bought the stuff to prepare. Sarah doesn’t really know how to cook so I had to be director - which I didn’t mind ;). We made pasta. They don’t have marinara sauce here so I made up a recipe and prayed it wouldn’t taste horrible. I used tomato paste, water, freshly diced onion and garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, and something else. It was actually tasty. I defiantly impressed myself. We also made garlic bread but they don’t have ovens so I made it over the charcoal in a pan grilled cheese style. It actually tasted amazing! We also made fried apples. I had never made that before so I just kinda made that up as well. I put butter in a pan, cut them into pieces, fried them and shook them with cinnamon and sugar. They were actually quite delicious!! My family told us this is the first American meal the entire family liked and they all ate it up. I want to thank my brother Brian for making me watch food network and allowing me to observe his amazing cooking skills! I would have been clueless if it weren’t for him.

The bummer part of all this is I threw it all up! I hadn’t been feeling too well all day, but I ignored it until I could no longer. Fortunately, no one else was sick so I know it’s not food poisoning, but a lame immune system on my part. I went to school Monday but left early because I felt horrible. I came home and threw up. So I just went to bed for a while. I woke up later and threw up some more and then got nasty diarrhea, prepare for the nasty graphics I feel compelled to share with you but it was like pee coming out my butt. I have never had it this bad before. like ever, it kinda scared me. But what was I to do? So I just went some more & threw up some more and eventually went to bed. I woke the next day and decided to skip school, so I slept till 1ish. This freaked out my family. They felt I should eat, but that was the last thing I wanted to do. They tried caring for me in their weird way I guess, they kept trying to force feed me fish. Umm, no thanks. By 5pm I was feeling a lot better so I ate some bread to make them happy. But then I threw it up. I went to school yesterday, but only to 1 class because I still didn’t feel good. I didn’t wanna be a burden or have them force me to eat so I just hung out in our little room the IMME kids have.

I live with cockroaches and I thought they were attacking me the other day. It was quite funny because I started to freak out until I realized I was in my mosquito net and there were no bugs anywhere. I did have one jump on my head the previous day though so I think I was still a little freaked out by that.

The IMME students are going on another weekend trip this coming Friday. We are going to Rakai, it’s close to the border of Tanzania I think. Should have another update next week, but I do have a project due on Wednesday that I won’t start until then, but hopefully an update will come your way sooner rather than later.

I forgot to mention this 2 weeks ago, but my mama’s sister died of AIDS. And she had a friend die this week. Please pray for her as she is going this hard time.