at home in Katosi (kind of)

Hey everyone, hope the week has been well! I’m preparing for my last week in Uganda now—I can’t believe its gone so quickly. At times 2 months has seemed like forever, but overall this trip has flown by! And as cheesy as this sounds (and you all know I’m not really a sentimental person or anything…), as I miss home more and more towards the end of the trip, the more I feel at home in Katosi with all the incredible people that are here.

The week started rocky—Rhea had been feeling sick since before rafting and it was getting worse so she went to get some tests done with a doctor in Keytume and found out that she had malaria AND typhoid! I felt horrible for her but I know she felt worse… I can’t even imagine…but now she’s finished treatment and feeling a lot better!
Anyway, while she was getting treated I was alone in Katosi but everyone knew I was by myself and they were super nice. The staff in Kampala called everyday, Mama made me meals, and I hung out with my friend Dora in the dairy a ton for company.

It was so exiting…one night early in the week I was watching Ugandan news with Mama and KWDT was featured. We had a huge ceremony on Sunday to open a new well up the road and although I didn’t see them, there must have been reporters covering the event and it was on national tv. Margaret the director and Rehema, one of the office staff were interviewed and they showed footage from the event. Of course we all cheered when it came on and it was so cool to see my little organization with that sort of legitimacy and publicity!

On Tuesday after health club at the secondary school I was walking home with Patience and Rose, 2 girls in the club and they invited me to their house to meet their mother and the rest of their family. Their mother is one of the most inspiring people I’ve met…she’s really young but her and her sisters live together and take in orphans from surrounding towns and give them a place to live and send them to school. So there were like 15 young kids living at their house, most of had been orphaned. I stayed there for a really long time and we showed each other pictures of our families and they cooked me a huge dinner with pineapple juice and sugar cane for dessert. Then since it was dark Patience and Rose walked me home and we hung out in the apartment for a while. It sure beat going back to the apartment by myself since Rhea was gone! Once again, I’m completely amazed by the people I meet here and there’s so much I want to do for them but I can’t figure out what would be the most help.

One of the other things I did this week was bring the letters from the girls at Orchard House to one of my schools and have the kids write back. They turned out great and it was a really fun activity but it was kind of disturbing to see just how much of the creative thought process the children lacked since all they do in school is repetition and copying. At first it was really hard to get them to do their own work instead of copying the examples I gave them straight from the board. I think that’s definitely an education/development issue I want to look into more once I get home.

Then finally on Thursday, KWDT had visitors from a prep school in England that has been a major donor to the organization. Margaret, Val, and everyone else from Kampala came to Katosi to show them around and we had a big celebration with dancing and music. And I got to talk to people my age in English…which is always exciting :)
After that, Margaret took us back to her house in Kampala since we are going to her graduation party in the city tonight. Her house was really nice and in the suburbs and it was fun to meet her children who are about our age and the rest of her relatives since they’re in town for the party. She really made us feel like part of the family, plus we got to watch American tv in really comfortable chairs and take a hot shower with running water! It was a good night!

So tonight we’ve got Margaret’s party, and then we’re cooking an “American” lunch for everyone we work with at our place on Sunday…after I’ll finish up the work in schools during the week and then head home after a weekend full of goodbye parties. I’m sure this last week will fly by and I’ll be home in no time!
I can’t wait to see everyone!

Love,
Kate