Welcome to His Majesty's Palace

Me gretting the King

King Oyo, now 19, became king at 3 years old! He is the world’s youngest king and I got a chance to meet him! Uganda has several kingdoms and each kingdom has a king. The kings don’t have much political power, but they are more of cultural figure heads. We woke up and went to work like any other normal day. Stephen ran to my classroom around 8:45am and said the Embrace Uganda group was headed to meet the king and we could join but had to leave immediately. This was a once in a lifetime chance that I had to take advantage of. King Oyo’s palace is in Fort Portal (the city we go to on weekends), it isn’t too big of a palace, but it was still very pretty. We sat in the front living room; there were 2 thrones, one for the king and one for his Queen mother.  Unfortunately, everyone but our group knew in advance so we were extremely underdressed. I had on a T-shirt and dirty formally white tennis shoes. Nevertheless, it was an amazing experience. We even had to be briefed on how to greet the king. The girls kneeled and tilted our heads to the left and he tapped our right shoulder. The boys had more of a task. They basically did 2 push-ups and touched each cheek to the ground. We were all pretty nervous; I actually think I held my breath while I went up there. The only thing I could think to say was “Hi, nice to meet you” and shook his hand. He simply responded the same, but it somehow sounded personal.

In front of the palace

The King and the Queen Mother

Last weekend was spectacular. I ended up going on a total of 4 Safaris. 3 driving Safaris and 1 boat Safari. It was definitely worth it. Finding the Lions on Sunday morning topped of the whole weekend. All I could think about was Simba!! The food at Queen Elizabeth was amazing; I ate way too much food all weekend. I love the drive back to Kaihura on Sunday afternoons. I just love the feeling of coming home. Kaihura has become home. The smells, sounds, and sights are all familiar and it’s comforting to come back.

My friend Simba

My class is doing well. I have been teaching a lot of English and Reading and Writing classes. Recently, I have been trying hard to have them understand the difference between: does, doesn’t, do, and don’t. It’s been a little rough but some are starting to catch on. They start final exams Wednesday this week, so it will be back to rapid grading all day long for me. Grading is not my favorite thing to do! My appreciation for teachers continues to rise. I’m still astonished that the students have to take exams for each subject and each test is supposed to take 2 ½ hours! I mean seriously! 9 year olds sitting down taking a 2 ½ hour Math test is absurd. It’s easy to understand why they give up and leave whole pages blank.

Surgar Cane during break time

I had a long talk with Emmanuel (the school headmaster) about my Health Survey for Global Health. The survey is pretty general and is meant to gage the students’ knowledge on health risks that could potential affect them, such as malaria, HIV, and other STIs. After looking at their curriculum the oldest class, P.5 seems to be the best fit for the survey. They are also the only ones that may understand the survey. I would also like to talk with someone at the nearby secondary school to see if I could distribute the survey to one of their classes as well. I think the benefit of the survey would be so teachers could be aware of which diseases and health risk they need to focus on during their lessons.

Sadly, so many of the children that we work with at the orphanage and school have ring worm on their bodies and heads. Because of that reason it is going around our group. I would say about 5 or 6 of us have it right now. I just recently found out I have it as well. We have anti-fungal cream from the doctor at the clinic and I also got pills for mine because mine are on my face. They look like dry patches of sun spots so it’s nothing too bad. At first I freaked out and was pretty upset about it, but I realized some people here are suffering with life threatening illnesses and are still positive about life. I just have a common fungus and even with the small chance that the medicine doesn’t work; as soon as I get to America I would get a powerful medicine to knock it out in a matter of days. So I’m thankful ringworm is the worst of my problems.

On Monday and Tuesday the clinic hosted 2 free clinic days for the community. Hundreds of people came out for the chance to see the doctors and get tested for free. They saw 130 people Monday and 370 people Tuesday. Kenneth, Carl, Emily, and Natalie work at the clinic and these were two of the busiest days of their life. Those 4 worked incredibly hard, I’m really proud of the work ethic they exhibited. People came for all different types of medical reasons, some just for checkups and others for life threatening diseases. Everyone also got free HIV testing. I came to just check it out Tuesday and saw how big the need was. I did one HIV and one Syphilis test. Emotionally, this work takes such a big tool on a person. I sat there closely watching the test and desperately hoping it came out negative. Thank God both of mine were negative, but I can’t imagine having to do that all day for multiple days. I believe on Tuesday they had a total of 7 positive tests for HIV, which is good considering the number of people they say….if a positive test could ever be considered good. I saw one of my students in line to get tested and my heart dropped. It just made it all real for me. This disease is no longer something I just read about, but I am actually among/ working with people and children who live in fear of having it. That is a scary, sad thought.  

I decided it had been way too long since I did any type of cardio work out, so Thursday I decided to run. Trust me; I was definitely a spectacle to the village people. Sprints, high knees, lunges, karaoke, and more. They probably thought I was the biggest weirdo ever. So many people would stop and stare for a while then continue on down the road. A couple kids stopped and were imitating me. It was pretty cute.

Today all 15 of us went to see some caves and do a little bit of hiking. I feel like I say this a lot, but it’s true…the natural beauty was incredible! It was just so beautiful. The hiking was intense; we were all pretty worn out afterwards. It made me regret working out earlier in the week because my legs were so sore they were like jelly. Once on top of the big mountain, all the pain was well worth it. The sense of accomplishment and witnessing God’s amazing beauty made me glad I endured the pain.

I can't help it :)

This might be our last weekend in Fort Portal because we want to experience Kaihura on the weekend. We only have 2 more weekends here because the last weekend we start travelling! Where did the time go? I can’t even stomach the idea of having to say my goodbyes. It’s safe to say some tears will be shed among everyone. That being said, this could potentially be my last blog due to internet access until the last few days when we go to the capital city, Kampala. The days are going by fast, but the impact will last forever.

Until Next Time,
*Nicole

Sometimes I sneak away from my class to hang out with my 2nd favorite kiddies!

Fancy Dinner

It’s a 400m Race and I Have About 150m to Go!

The real Lion King

Pull up to the gate of Queen Elizabeth National Park and we are instantly greeted by a mother elephant and her 2 babies. Simply breathtaking, just breathtaking! I am literally sitting on the hotel balcony overlooking the national park. I can see animals out by the water taking their morning bath. Millions and millions of snow white butterflies surround me just fluttering so effortlessly. My goodness, the only thing I can say it look at God’s beautiful creations. This place is amazing I could go on and on forever. The lodge is all inclusive, so we could just sit here and eat all day if we wanted to. (The food is so good we tried, but it’s physically impossible!)
Some of us however have being dealing with similar feelings to when we first arrived at our hotel in Fort Portal. This place is just so gorgeous and we literally have everything at our fingertips, but we just came from a small village where we have students who live in make-shift houses with one room for an entire family. It is definitely a confusing situation to go back and forth between. The only way we know how to handle it is by simply talking and figuring out how we can better serve our village and each other.
On a lighter note however, some of us went out for our first Safari yesterday. Elephants, cobs, antelope, water buffalo, various birds, and more animals I can’t even name. Our driver wasn't exactly skilled at driving on safari terrain however, 4 of us were standing out the sun roof and he hit a huge bush! We were covered in leaves and I even got a couple scratches. It wasn't funny then, but it made for a great journal entry. This is seriously “The Lion King” real life edition! (And I love “The Lion King” so I’m in heaven!) I am going for the boat safari this afternoon and then back to the driving safari because I’m determined to see Simba.

Safari

Baby Elephant!

Of course I had to do a handstand on the equator!

Rewinding a bit, last weekend most of the group went to Lake Kinynga <Definitely misspelled but it sounded like this. It was beautiful as well. They had a dock that we swam off of and just relaxed. On Sunday we went to a new church. It was a nice reminder of home, the pastor is an American Missionary who has been here for a couple years and started this church. It felt like home and that was really nice. After church a couple of us went to visit a guy, Joseph, who we met the week before at the Catholic Church. He invited us all over to his Aunt’s house. The hospitality here is amazing, it greatly rivals Southern hospitality. They love having visitors and would do anything to make sure their guests are comfortable. They are such a loving people that would give their last for a friend.

The most amazing part of that day was when we met Joseph’s grandmother (Mukaka in Rutooro). She was 102 years old! Such a beautiful woman, she looked so good and I felt honored just to be in her presence. I had to touch her hand before leaving and instantly tears started streaming down my face. Not many people live to be 102 years old, especially in Uganda where the life expectancy is around the late 50’s I believe.

Joseph's 102 year old Grandmother

Tuesday this week was one of my student’s first times wearing shoes to school. Can you imagine seeing a student come to school every day for 4 weeks with no shoes? Once again I got a little teary eyed. Just being around him and feeling his positive spirit, you would never ever know how much he doesn’t have. These kids are amazing; they give me strength to keep going.

Lately, a couple of the girls have been doing spontaneous abs and legs workouts. Please imagine us all using our rooms and the den of our house as a workout and dance studio. It’s a pretty funny sight to see.

Another group from North Carolina arrived this weekend. They have a good number of high school students. They are affiliated with Embrace Uganda; it seems like a pretty cool organization that has really been making a difference in our community. On the one hand it’s nice to see people from home around the village so we are no longer the odd looking people around here haha, but it’s also weird having other Americans around. Now that we are half-way through the trip we feel like the big dogs around Kaihura :D.

Malena, Emily and I got a chance to make Chapati for dinner this week. It is very similar to a flat tortilla, but tastes a little different. It is my favorite food here, I’m obsessed with it. Stephen promised to give me the recipe so I can make it when I get home. School is going smoothly; and we are getting much better at volleyball (won 4 out of 5 games the other day!), everything is just great.

Making Chapati

I know we are a little over half-way through with the trip, but that’s not even something I want to think about. Cold showers and all, I’m just having such a good time I can’t imagine leaving my students, village mates, and new Duke friends. This trip has been such a blessing for all of us.

Me teaching in my class

Until Next Time,
*Nicole