Hello Everyone!!
So yesterday after i typed my short but still awesome Blog. We decided to split up into smaller groups and explore Soroti. We started asking people around town if they needed help with anything in the community and we ended up getting an awesome contact at a brand new medical center they are opening near our base. We spent about 5 hours this morning helping them organize supplies and do inventory on everything that was donated to them. The charity is called Salt Peter Trust. They work on teaching community's how to get out of poverty by educating. They don't believe in hand outs and help build projects that provide jobs. They don't want to help build up a community that becomes dependent on them when they leave to go back home. We also got in contact with the biggest school in Soroti. They have about 100 children to one teacher. So we are going to go in next week and work with the teachers teaching some English classes. It will be really neat for us to see how there school system is run here. I'm having a hard time eating the same food everyday. They try and change it up a bit but i think i may never want to eat beans again. They do have a more Americanized restaurant near by so i think we might try and eat a lunch or dinner there soon. The most exciting news i have is that on Saturday the 22nd we are going to meet a child solider named Dominic. I'm really interested to hear his story since Ive read a couple books on child soldiers and some of the stuff these children went through is insane. I know Ive told a lot of sad stories about many of the children here but i do want everyone to know that the people although poor are so happy. They have such strong faith and hope that things will get better. Its so awesome to see the since of community and pride they have in being from Africa. So i thought a lot about what i want to do to make a change with the money many of you have given in support of the children here. Soroti has accuses to clean water through a well system. But if you cant afford the containers to carry the water then having access to clean water doesn't do much for you. So I'm going to buy a tun of containers and hand them out to the families in need. Ill take lots of pictures for everyone to see. Clean water is really important for the prevention of disease. This will not only help the local children but it will also help their entire family.
Time to go!! Ill try to write soon!!
Love you all,
Chantal
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Hey Asian Lady!
This is going to be a quick one since i only have 15 minutes on the computer. I'm not sure how this is even possible but everyone here thinks I'm Asian lol. So around the base Tony one of the staff calls me Asian Lady and we pretend to speak our own special Asian Language lol. Every Friday we now spend the day with the kids that are sponsored by Compassion. They are so funny, they love to play copy cat games. So we sing a lot of repeat after me songs and do the hokey poky. Yesterday which was Monday the 17th? We climbed up the side of a water fall and got to go behind the water fall in this little cave. It was so amazing!! I bought Fresh grown Coffee at the little hotel\bar at the base of the water fall. Ive been told its amazing coffee by my group members who had a cup so I'm pretty pumped to bring it back for everyone to try. We have been really busy finishing off some of the projects we are working on. After lunch today the second coat of paint goes on the walls at the big kids orphanage. There is a new baby at the little kids orphanage. He is there because his mother died from the chicken poxes. He is also infected with the chicken poxes so we are momentarily staying away to insure we don't become infected too.
Love you all!!
Oh and one of the boys on our team Tyson got Malaria. He is Ok though, Just had to have a couple of days laying in bed!
Chantal
Love you all!!
Oh and one of the boys on our team Tyson got Malaria. He is Ok though, Just had to have a couple of days laying in bed!
Chantal
Thursday, May 13, 2010
LML
Greetings!!
Just to give you a little back round information about what LML means, its stands for Love my Life. Every time something bad happens to one of our team mates like for example you have the African Runs lol we say LML instead of FML. Its a good reminder that things could be worse and to be thankful for that.
A couple days ago some of my team mates went to the prison to hand out extra food and soap to the mothers that are locked up and there children. If a mother is put into jail so are her children. One of the ladies they met was in jail for barring her child alive. That child is at our orphanage but none of us know which one it is. CRAZY!! On there way back passing through town the locals had caught a thief. The police made him get completely naked before anyone had a chance to pore gas on him and start him on fire. EVEN CRAZIER!!
We started cutting the grass at the local School so when the kids come back they can play soccer in the field. We have to cut the grass with machetes. All i have to say is its really hard and Hot haha. Plus there are frogs everywhere that we cant touch since they have poisonous saliva. EKK!! We have been assigned painting projects all over town, they want us to do murals on some of the walls. KNOW ONE ON MY TEAM CAN DRAW so this should be interesting.
We all pitched in money and bought fabric on Tuesday. We are going to try and knot together a soccer net for the community. If it works its $10.00 a net and a whole lotta man hours haha. Everyday we go to the soccer field (which during the day also doubles as grazing land for all the local cows haha) and play a game with the kids around our community. I play defense which i would like to point out I'm not to bad at. Its weird that the only girls who play are white and are from our team. I cant even tell you how many times I've slid in cow dung trying to get the ball lol. Everyday more and more kids come out to play against us. Some are too small so they play hand games and sing songs with the none athletic members of our group. The first time we made our way to the field it was hard to get the kids to come play with us. One of the boys Chris told one of our girls he couldn't play because he thought we wouldn't want him on our team :(. But we convinced him to play and now he plays Defense with me everyday :). There was another little boy watching the first day we played and he said he couldn't play with us because he didn't have shoes like ours :(. I wanted to take off my shoes and give them to him but i need my runners for climbing up Soroti's massive rock in a couple days and for the safari we are going on in a couple weeks. I plan on leaving my shoes at the orphanage in Jinja. Everyone who plays against us plays with no shoes. I have no idea how they do it. I walk around the base without shoes and my feet start hurting.
I'm falling in love with some of the children at the orphanage. One of the babies Joseph has something wrong with his shoulder and he cries if you pick him up funny. He wouldn't stop crying yesterday when i was holding him so i tried patting his back and he let out a big fart lol. He stopped crying and smiled at me haha. Issac is my next favorite he has buck teeth and his giggle is so funny. He was carried by Ywam as a baby and then given back to his parents. YWAM does random checkups on the children given back and if they are not being taken care of properly then they are taken back to the orphanage. Issac is one of those babies. Right now he is all bloated and you can feel his ribs through his shirt. Its frustrating that he had to return in such pore condition. Even worse is he is almost 2 years old and he is the size of a 1 year old. I'm finding it hard sometimes to be in such a big group since you loose that individual freedom. I had a chance to go with one of the nurses at the orphanage to the hospital and help with immunizations. She could only bring just one of us and we have to always stay in two's so i was not allowed to go.
Everyone will be proud to know i have avoided all major illnesses thus far and my bowels are working just fine haha. I also had a chance to eat White ants. They are actually really good. I might try to bring some home for everyone to try. They have these massive ant hills everywhere. At night the locals shine a light on the hills and the ants (which have wings and are actually red colored) fly to wards it. They catch them, de-wing them and fry them up haha. Add salt and a hand full is 6x the amount of protein as eating a steak.
Got to go!!
Love you all!
Chantal
Just to give you a little back round information about what LML means, its stands for Love my Life. Every time something bad happens to one of our team mates like for example you have the African Runs lol we say LML instead of FML. Its a good reminder that things could be worse and to be thankful for that.
A couple days ago some of my team mates went to the prison to hand out extra food and soap to the mothers that are locked up and there children. If a mother is put into jail so are her children. One of the ladies they met was in jail for barring her child alive. That child is at our orphanage but none of us know which one it is. CRAZY!! On there way back passing through town the locals had caught a thief. The police made him get completely naked before anyone had a chance to pore gas on him and start him on fire. EVEN CRAZIER!!
We started cutting the grass at the local School so when the kids come back they can play soccer in the field. We have to cut the grass with machetes. All i have to say is its really hard and Hot haha. Plus there are frogs everywhere that we cant touch since they have poisonous saliva. EKK!! We have been assigned painting projects all over town, they want us to do murals on some of the walls. KNOW ONE ON MY TEAM CAN DRAW so this should be interesting.
We all pitched in money and bought fabric on Tuesday. We are going to try and knot together a soccer net for the community. If it works its $10.00 a net and a whole lotta man hours haha. Everyday we go to the soccer field (which during the day also doubles as grazing land for all the local cows haha) and play a game with the kids around our community. I play defense which i would like to point out I'm not to bad at. Its weird that the only girls who play are white and are from our team. I cant even tell you how many times I've slid in cow dung trying to get the ball lol. Everyday more and more kids come out to play against us. Some are too small so they play hand games and sing songs with the none athletic members of our group. The first time we made our way to the field it was hard to get the kids to come play with us. One of the boys Chris told one of our girls he couldn't play because he thought we wouldn't want him on our team :(. But we convinced him to play and now he plays Defense with me everyday :). There was another little boy watching the first day we played and he said he couldn't play with us because he didn't have shoes like ours :(. I wanted to take off my shoes and give them to him but i need my runners for climbing up Soroti's massive rock in a couple days and for the safari we are going on in a couple weeks. I plan on leaving my shoes at the orphanage in Jinja. Everyone who plays against us plays with no shoes. I have no idea how they do it. I walk around the base without shoes and my feet start hurting.
I'm falling in love with some of the children at the orphanage. One of the babies Joseph has something wrong with his shoulder and he cries if you pick him up funny. He wouldn't stop crying yesterday when i was holding him so i tried patting his back and he let out a big fart lol. He stopped crying and smiled at me haha. Issac is my next favorite he has buck teeth and his giggle is so funny. He was carried by Ywam as a baby and then given back to his parents. YWAM does random checkups on the children given back and if they are not being taken care of properly then they are taken back to the orphanage. Issac is one of those babies. Right now he is all bloated and you can feel his ribs through his shirt. Its frustrating that he had to return in such pore condition. Even worse is he is almost 2 years old and he is the size of a 1 year old. I'm finding it hard sometimes to be in such a big group since you loose that individual freedom. I had a chance to go with one of the nurses at the orphanage to the hospital and help with immunizations. She could only bring just one of us and we have to always stay in two's so i was not allowed to go.
Everyone will be proud to know i have avoided all major illnesses thus far and my bowels are working just fine haha. I also had a chance to eat White ants. They are actually really good. I might try to bring some home for everyone to try. They have these massive ant hills everywhere. At night the locals shine a light on the hills and the ants (which have wings and are actually red colored) fly to wards it. They catch them, de-wing them and fry them up haha. Add salt and a hand full is 6x the amount of protein as eating a steak.
Got to go!!
Love you all!
Chantal
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Week One
Hello All :)!
First and foremost i would like to wish my mom a very happy mothers day :)!! Love you mommy! I'm going to start from the Arriving in Africa at the Airport. They have no Security/bag checks so when we went to buy our Visa's we gave them to the guard in a pile and waited on the other side for each Passport to be stamped. No one Id us or anything. The locals hate this because it allows people to import all sorts of things into Uganda.
In most places in Africa its ok to wear whatever you want but since Soroti is such a small community they have a dress code. When we are playing sports or doing labour we can wear shorts but everywhere else skirts below the knee is required. Its funny though cause we can wear tank tops with our skirts. Its only the legs that are considered sexual here. I'm staying at the YWAM base which stands for Youth with a mission.
Everyone is very friendly everywhere we go and throughout the streets we can always hear people yelling "YOGA" at us which means Hi and "Muzungu" which means white person haha. Its very safe here since the public punishment for steeling is terrifying. If you steel from someone the community chases after you, pores gasoline on you and lights you on fire before the police show up.
Today is Sunday so we all went to church. Its exactly like you see in Movies where people are dancing and singing and yelling really loud about God saving your soul. I LOVED IT!! The church we attended has 3000 members. They invited us up to the front stage to introduce ourselves and to tell everyone where we are from. I was the last one to speak so i said "my name is Chantal, I'm from Alberta, Canada and God Bless you all". Everyone clapped really loud and did a high pitched African tribal Scream haha.
I've been helping in the Kitchen at the base and i learnt how to make what Ive named "Deep Fried Banana Bread" but what they call "Mandazi". Its a flour, sugar, banana, backing soda, water mixture that you fry in Oil. Soooo Good!!! We eat alot of rice, beans and bread. So im glad i brought suppliments.
We went yesterday to the orphanage it was really hard on everyone. They are not sure if the baby's are HIV positive because they need permission from the guardians to do testing. Some of the Baby's where found in the bush abandoned, others mothers died giving birth. They have a wall filled with pictures of all the children they have helped over the years, including the ones that are in the orphanage now. They put stars on the ones that have passed away. Standing and looking at this wall was really hard for me. Some of the children with stars looked like the starving children on the Tv Adds you see at home. One of the Older Children we met we where told was saved by the police at the last minute when he was being sacrificed by a witch doctor in a village outside of Soroti. He had his stomach cut open when they saved him and he suffers from organ problems now.
On the way up to Soroti from Jinja i sat in the front seat with Nathan the director of the orphanage in Jinja. He explained to me that many children die in Uganda because there parents cant not afford to pay for the doctor fees/ medication. In fact growing up this is how his little brother passed away. When he was in his 20's his mom fell very ill and he rushed her to the hospital. He didn't have money on him so he left her there and drove quickly to the bank. By the time he came back she had passed away because they wont touch someone without being paid first. So sad. We got stopped by the police a lot on our way to Soroti. Nathan was starting to get annoyed because the police here are corrupt. They make you pay them money other wise they give you a ticket that will cost you more then just paying them up front.
We dont have a working computer at the base so i have to come into town to Write. Im hoping I'll be able to Blog at least twice a week but forsure every Sunday ill have time. I have so much more to tell you. Miss everyone a tun!! Love you all. Oh and i have yet to figure out how to post pictures yet, sorry!!
Love,chantal
First and foremost i would like to wish my mom a very happy mothers day :)!! Love you mommy! I'm going to start from the Arriving in Africa at the Airport. They have no Security/bag checks so when we went to buy our Visa's we gave them to the guard in a pile and waited on the other side for each Passport to be stamped. No one Id us or anything. The locals hate this because it allows people to import all sorts of things into Uganda.
In most places in Africa its ok to wear whatever you want but since Soroti is such a small community they have a dress code. When we are playing sports or doing labour we can wear shorts but everywhere else skirts below the knee is required. Its funny though cause we can wear tank tops with our skirts. Its only the legs that are considered sexual here. I'm staying at the YWAM base which stands for Youth with a mission.
Everyone is very friendly everywhere we go and throughout the streets we can always hear people yelling "YOGA" at us which means Hi and "Muzungu" which means white person haha. Its very safe here since the public punishment for steeling is terrifying. If you steel from someone the community chases after you, pores gasoline on you and lights you on fire before the police show up.
Today is Sunday so we all went to church. Its exactly like you see in Movies where people are dancing and singing and yelling really loud about God saving your soul. I LOVED IT!! The church we attended has 3000 members. They invited us up to the front stage to introduce ourselves and to tell everyone where we are from. I was the last one to speak so i said "my name is Chantal, I'm from Alberta, Canada and God Bless you all". Everyone clapped really loud and did a high pitched African tribal Scream haha.
I've been helping in the Kitchen at the base and i learnt how to make what Ive named "Deep Fried Banana Bread" but what they call "Mandazi". Its a flour, sugar, banana, backing soda, water mixture that you fry in Oil. Soooo Good!!! We eat alot of rice, beans and bread. So im glad i brought suppliments.
We went yesterday to the orphanage it was really hard on everyone. They are not sure if the baby's are HIV positive because they need permission from the guardians to do testing. Some of the Baby's where found in the bush abandoned, others mothers died giving birth. They have a wall filled with pictures of all the children they have helped over the years, including the ones that are in the orphanage now. They put stars on the ones that have passed away. Standing and looking at this wall was really hard for me. Some of the children with stars looked like the starving children on the Tv Adds you see at home. One of the Older Children we met we where told was saved by the police at the last minute when he was being sacrificed by a witch doctor in a village outside of Soroti. He had his stomach cut open when they saved him and he suffers from organ problems now.
On the way up to Soroti from Jinja i sat in the front seat with Nathan the director of the orphanage in Jinja. He explained to me that many children die in Uganda because there parents cant not afford to pay for the doctor fees/ medication. In fact growing up this is how his little brother passed away. When he was in his 20's his mom fell very ill and he rushed her to the hospital. He didn't have money on him so he left her there and drove quickly to the bank. By the time he came back she had passed away because they wont touch someone without being paid first. So sad. We got stopped by the police a lot on our way to Soroti. Nathan was starting to get annoyed because the police here are corrupt. They make you pay them money other wise they give you a ticket that will cost you more then just paying them up front.
We dont have a working computer at the base so i have to come into town to Write. Im hoping I'll be able to Blog at least twice a week but forsure every Sunday ill have time. I have so much more to tell you. Miss everyone a tun!! Love you all. Oh and i have yet to figure out how to post pictures yet, sorry!!
Love,chantal
Friday, May 7, 2010
Finally in Soroti
Hi Everyone!!
We finally made it to our base camp. So much to tell you and so little time for me to write today. The first plane ride was brutal-for everyone that does not know i dont fly well. I took to much gravel which actually did the opposite its supposed to and i threw up for 6 hours straight, the terbalience did not help either. Im so thankful i had a 8 hr lay over in London to re-hydrate/sleep it off. The Flight into Entebbe went awesome. I watched three movies- the Princess and the frog, The lovely Bones and the other i cant remember how what its called haha. It took us two hours to drive into Jinja and we stayed over night at the orphanage the other team will be working with. It took 5 hours to drive from Jinja to Soroti. We cramed into a small 13 person bus(there is 15 of us haha). No cars have Air conditioning so you drive at 110 with the windows down. Just so everyone knows i feel great. The food we get to eat is all prepared so that we don't get ill and our water is treated. We are staying at the Ywam Base and they have so many neat things for us to do over the next 3 weeks. We get to help paint a new school that was just built, work night shift at the hospital, help fill in pot holes on the main road leading into our community etc. I have lot of stories to tell you but we only came into town to get some clothes-you have to wear skirts if you are a girl and i only packed on dress and then to tell everyone at home I'm safe. There is a 9 hour difference in time so most of my message will be posted in the evening for you guys and early day here. Its 1:25pm here. Love you all!!! Thank you for your comments. Its so amazing here. I CANT WAIT TO POST PICTURES!!!
Love,
Chantal
We finally made it to our base camp. So much to tell you and so little time for me to write today. The first plane ride was brutal-for everyone that does not know i dont fly well. I took to much gravel which actually did the opposite its supposed to and i threw up for 6 hours straight, the terbalience did not help either. Im so thankful i had a 8 hr lay over in London to re-hydrate/sleep it off. The Flight into Entebbe went awesome. I watched three movies- the Princess and the frog, The lovely Bones and the other i cant remember how what its called haha. It took us two hours to drive into Jinja and we stayed over night at the orphanage the other team will be working with. It took 5 hours to drive from Jinja to Soroti. We cramed into a small 13 person bus(there is 15 of us haha). No cars have Air conditioning so you drive at 110 with the windows down. Just so everyone knows i feel great. The food we get to eat is all prepared so that we don't get ill and our water is treated. We are staying at the Ywam Base and they have so many neat things for us to do over the next 3 weeks. We get to help paint a new school that was just built, work night shift at the hospital, help fill in pot holes on the main road leading into our community etc. I have lot of stories to tell you but we only came into town to get some clothes-you have to wear skirts if you are a girl and i only packed on dress and then to tell everyone at home I'm safe. There is a 9 hour difference in time so most of my message will be posted in the evening for you guys and early day here. Its 1:25pm here. Love you all!!! Thank you for your comments. Its so amazing here. I CANT WAIT TO POST PICTURES!!!
Love,
Chantal
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Thoughts Before I Leave
I am going to try my very best to keep up with this Blog since when I attempted to Blog in Egypt it was an epic Fail haha. I'm getting really excited to leave, 2 more days till I am on a plane for London and in 3 I'll be landing in Africa. I'm a little bit nervous, this is my first trip doing humanitarian work. I've been wanting to do something like this for so long that it almost doesn't feel real, you know? I'm kinda scared to, from what most of you know about me I'm full blown A type personality...there's a shocker!! So to let go... to just go along for the ride, is going to be an experience in itself. But this trip feels right, it has since the moment I read a Facebook message telling me I should consider applying to be a part of this team. I'm so blessed to have the support from my family, friends, co-workers etc. Thank you so much in advance to everyone supporting me and for taking the time out of your busy lives to follow my posts.
Love you All!!
PS. I pre-apologize for any grammar/ spelling errors!! Haha Lord knows spelling and grammer is not one of my strengths!
Talk soon :)
Chantal
Love you All!!
PS. I pre-apologize for any grammar/ spelling errors!! Haha Lord knows spelling and grammer is not one of my strengths!
Talk soon :)
Chantal
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