Moments

Moments

So as my trip is almost officially over I have been thinking about some of the most memorable moments of my trip and wanted to share them with you all. Some of them are funny, some of them are sad, some of them you might not understand. However, these are the moments that have made this trip an amazing, life changing, beautiful experience for me, so here it goes.

MOMENT 1:
Diana and I are sitting on a papyrus mat with 40 pairs of eyes looking right at us. We are in Pabo visiting our two kids that live there. Kevin, Laura and Megan have left and Diana and I are there for the night. No English is spoken by anyone around us and our Luo at this point is minimal and consists of nothing useful in this situation. So what do Diana and I do? Well the teachers inside of us come out, and we start doing math and English problems with sticks in the dirt. You can hear everyone around saying the math problems aloud, we know our numbers it is the first thing we both learned. The pressure is on Beatrice and Wilfred, I think I would have cracked with all those people around me, watching, waiting to see if I answer correctly. However, they both performed wonderfully even with everyone around them, and then they turned the tables. It was our turn to see if we could perform with so many people watching, I would like to say Diana and I did well, but I think the fact we only did addition problems helped.

This moment was amazing because of its simplicity. There we were sitting with two of our kids and their mother with a good portion of Pabo surrounding us by the end of the evening. I have never had as much fun doing math with kids as I did there. There was something beautiful and wonderful about writing in the dirt with a stick and hearing the old men doing the problem aloud. It is a moment forever cemented in my memory because I did not have a care in the world other than that stick, the dirt, and those kids.

MOMENT 2:
Again Diana and I are together but this time not in a camp but a school. It is our first school visit and we are sitting in a P4 classroom at Demonstration Primary School and over 100 kids packed inside of a classroom surround us. I was overwhelmed by the situation, and as the class continued I continued to have moments of is this really happening? Is it really taking 15 minutes of precious instructional time to pass out exercise booklets? Of course it is with over 100 children in a classroom. When the class finally begins I am straining to hear what the teacher is saying, and I look around me and I realize that the kids are not even straining anymore, at least half the class is lost in the back of the classroom. I found myself wondering if this man even knows who our students are, no one could blame him if he didn’t, he teachers two classes of over 100 students on a rotational basis.

This is the moment that helped me appreciate everything I ever received in terms of education all over again. I remembered just how lucky I am, that is not something I think about and realize often but this moment in time made me. Sitting in the back of that classroom made me remember why it is I want to be a teacher, simply put because a child should never sit in the back of the classroom and not even try to listen because it is of no use. That moment is the one that I will look back on when I am frustrated, and just don’t want to be in a classroom anymore. That is the moment that will motivate me to be the best teacher that I can possibly be, not just sometimes but every moment of everyday that I am in a classroom.

MOMENT 3:
Sitting in the office like any other day. A man walks in with a crutch, and wants to talk with us but does not speak English and Kevin is not in the office. So we go to the back of the compound and get Monica to help translate for us and he tells us his story. He is taking care of kids that are not his that he helped take care of in the bush. He is missing his leg because it was cut off by a machete and he has no means of an income and he just wants these kids to be able to go to school and have a fair chance at life. As we put in all of his information to the waiting list I have to turn my head away, I can’t look at him. Tears are rolling down my cheeks, and I can’t make them stop. As he gets up and shakes our hands and leaves the office a bit of me leaves with him.

This moment reminded me how cruel life can be. It was the first but not the last time I would have to tell a guardian, or a child themselves that there is nothing I can do to help them. That has by far been the most difficult moment for me of this trip I think. Telling this man with such a gentle face, who appeared to almost be in tears himself that we are not taking anymore kids and to go ask another organization. That mans face is forever in my memory and his story forever in my heart. I have heard the same story in 100 different ways at this point in my trip but it never gets easier. I hope that someone was able to help him and his children. I know the work that we are doing is great and what we are doing is helpful and I know that we can’t help everyone but sometimes I just wish we could.

MOMENT 4:
After the decision was made that we needed to get our kids into better schools we needed to go see these schools and talk with the head teachers. So Diana and I were off with the assistance of Kevin to go and see these schools that we wanted our kids at. First up was Negri Primary School for boys, Kevin told us it was a good walk, almost in the bush. So there we are walking on the main road and Kevin turns around and says we are going to take a strange route to get there but it is the best way to get there, and of course Diana and I are ready to go whatever way we need to. So there we are walking through this tall grass. It had not rained in a few days so it was a dry walk, until a small patch of the path had water in mud. I was at the end of the line and Diana and Kevin walked through no problem, and I just tried to follow where they had walked which should have been fairly simple. I was doing just fine until I try to step and my shoe falls off into the mud and I step right into the mud with my bare foot. All I could do was laugh at myself and of course Diana was laughing right along with me, and Kevin is shaking his head at me. Then Kevin says, “Madisson you love to hang out, have fun, and step in African mud.”

This moment is amazing because it is typical me. I am always the one who manages to get mud all over myself or step in the big puddle thinking that I am stepping into the shallow one. Mind this is not something that just happens in Uganda, this is me all the time no matter where I am in the world. I always have a shoe falling off or am falling down myself. I am by far the most graceful person that has ever walked this earth…not. It is a wonderful moment because there I was with mud all over my foot and all I could do was laugh at myself and was glad that everyone else could laugh at me too.

MOMENT 5:
Diana and Laura have just spent their last day in the office and we have had quite the get together with everyone but it is sadly time to leave. It is pretty late and the last of the taxi’s have already left Lacor for the night and we find ourselves in quite the pickle. We find a guy who has a car that will take us back to the hotel but wants to charge us 15,000UGX and we are just not having it, the price he is asking is absurd so we decide we will find another means of getting home. Our options are starting to dwindle and we are standing by all the bodas and think that this is our only option. Megan is 100% opposed to riding a boda at night, as we all are in most situations but we know we have to get back. Laura and I are already on the back of bikes, we are not happy about it but there is not much else we can do. Suddenly we see some headlights on the road and we tell our drivers not to leave yet. Megan goes into the road and flags them down and it just so happens to be a World Vision truck and they will give us a ride, for free all the way back to our hotel we just have to make a few stops along the way. Thanks Meg. So there we are in the back of a pick-up truck just riding around making a few stops here and there picking a student up, dropping her off. And as we are driving with the wind in our hair we sing “I’m leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again…” at the top of our lungs and it was wonderful.

This was great because this is typical us, especially Megan. We ride in cars with strangers when our taxi’s break down, or when it is too late to get on a boda. We have lucked out and had some great rides with NGO’s and those rides have certainly been high points of our trip. Sitting in the back of that truck singing that song, knowing that they were leaving the next day and Megan and I would soon be following could have been a sad moment but it wasn’t. It was great, wonderful, fun, and amazing. As we are driving and shouting the song we hit a massive pot hole and we get thrown about the back of the truck and all we can do is laugh and then keep singing.

MOMENT 6:
Diana and I are in Pajule finally! We are there to spend time with Maria during her last few days in Uganda before heading to Rwanda and then back home. It is a weekend full of ceremonies and festivities, certainly a good time to be in Pajule. At the end of the festivities the guardians of the program kids in Pajule start to dance. We are sitting and enjoying being able to watch them, next thing we know the three of us are part of the dance. It was so much fun to be dancing around with those women, and doing the special festivities sound effect that only the woman do.

Ahh to be dancing with the women, a great moment in time. It was as if they were embracing us, embracing them and that was amazing. We were at that moment not just white people they were performing for in thanks for our help but we were part of their group, dancing with them.

MOMENT 7:
SLEEP OVER!!!! So Diana and I are lying on papyrus mats on the floor of the office surrounded by most of our girls sleeping. We had had such a good night. We watched Stuart Little and ate biscuits and just enjoyed hanging out with the kids. The boys slept in another room at the back of the compound and we slept with the girls. We told them a night-time story, a new version of Cinderella and fell to our sweet slumbers. I was half way asleep and later found out that Diana was also not fully asleep when we both heard some of the girls rustling about. Suddenly the girls got up and turned on the light, instinctively both Diana and myself put our sheets over our heads and asked what was going on, we were really confused. The girls had opened the door and it was pouring down rain and still pitch black outside, what could they possibly be doing? We kept asking what was going on and finally Atim Sharon looked at us both and said, “the girls are urinating” They all came back in a turned off the lights and everyone eventually went back to bed, accept for myself because Janet was clutching onto me in an awkward manner that prevented me from really going back to sleep, but I didn’t mind one bit.

What an amazing moment/night this was. The night as a whole was great but that moment when they all got up was just great. I don’t particularly know why it was just a hilarious situation that Diana and I laughed about hysterically not only that night but the next day. It was just a great time to be spent with the kids, because at the end of the day that is why I am here, for these kids. There is nothing like being woke from a great night of sleep by an abrupt light and fits of girlish giggling to find out everyone needed to go to the bathroom at the same time.

MOMENT 8:
So marriage proposals are something that everyone on this trip has had to deal with on a regular basis. There is one in particular that sticks out in my mind and I think others minds as well. We were all sitting at home when Molly knocks on our door. Molly is the woman that works here at the guest house that we have become very good friends with. This is not the first time she has knocked on our door to deliver us messages from people that are out in the bar but this would turn out to be a unique situation. There were four men and a woman sitting outside in the chairs by the other rooms and had requested that we come join them for drinks and that they wanted to marry us. Megan promptly responds to Molly that she should tell them that real men handle their own marriage proposals…OOOPS! Two of the men promptly came over to our door and asked us for drinks. We declined, but they insisted that we at least say hello to their other friends. Megan goes, expecting to be back momentarily but she doesn’t. Long story short we all end up out there talking with them, but without drinks. Diana gets away and Laura manages to also make a fairly quick escape leaving Megan and myself. There is this 31-year-old man sitting next to me showing me pictures of his family and asking me to be his second wife, I obviously decline. As Megan and I are making our escape they ask to take a picture with us, we give in hoping that after this they will leave. Megan takes some photos with one of the guys who likes her and then it is my turn. So I take a picture with Jimmy and get up to go and he asks for one more, I say okay. I figure Megan took about 4 pictures I can take 2. The man who proposed is the photographer and says that Jimmy and I should kiss. I say absolutely not, and Megan explains we don’t kiss before we are married. WHEW! We think we are in the clear. So I am sitting there getting the second picture over with and next thing I know there are two lips on my cheek grossly kissing me and I feel a tongue touch my cheek as well. I pull my head away, appalled by what has just happened, and Megan is completely grossed out by what she just saw. And Megan being the girl that I dearly love goes off on Jimmy because I am so furious and grossed out I am lost for words.

Why is this defining moment of my trip? Well because Jimmy has not went away. Megan and I have him knocking on our door just about daily. He wont take the hint that we don’t want to see him anymore. Thanks to Megan though he has not tried to kiss nor touch anyone again. He fears a munu lashing out on him again. Lets just say if he even tries to touch my arm or Megan’s arm he wont like the consequences. By the way I promptly went inside and washed my face.

So these are some of the memorable moments of this trip. The good, the bad, and the ugly. This trip has been amazing, and I would not change anything about it, other than the kiss that is.