4th of july

The 4th of July weekend was the best. On Saturday, we went hiking through the Mabira Rainforest. What a beautiful place! We saw monkeys everywhere and there were trees as tall as sky scrapers. We were too cheap to pay for a guide so of course we got a little lost. We eventually came out in the middle of a matoke field. We were supposed to come out right on the road. Knowing that we needed to find the road to get to our next destination, we started hiking through the field. Eventually, we stumbled upon a farmer with a machete glaring at us. He didn't appreciate us wandering through his fields and started towards us. We immediately turned around and started running away. Thankfully, we finally stumbled upon the road and started hiking up a mountain in search of the Rainforest Lodge. It took us a while but we finally found it. What a glorious place! I have never seen a more beautiful resort in my life. We went and laid by the pool and sipped away at drinks. I felt like royalty. I didn't know that such a place could exist in such a poor country. We were immediately knocked back into reality when we came home though.
On the 4th, we went to the US Embassy in Kampala for their BBQ. I was a little overwhelmed to see so many bzungu in one place. It was great though to have some American food. They played country songs and Party in the USA. I looked around for Nicole because the Mukono team was there but apparently she has already left. I had no idea she was already gone! Anyways, it was quite fun and they even had fireworks. They had Marines at the party also. It was nice to be around military men that you could trust and weren't carrying huge AK-47s. It was strange to be there though. I felt a little awkward and overwhelmed. I guess that it what it will be like to go home.
This week, I have been jumping around on different projects while waiting for my stats professors to get back to me about the research project. I have helped teach community members and the nurse at the hospital about managing back pain and how to strengthen their core and improve the way they do their daily activities to prevent back pain. I have also helped in a nursery garden. We have started transferring plants to some of our 100 beneficiaries. This week, we had the musana women come and ask us to teach them about proper hygiene and sanitation. They also expressed interest in receiving hand washing stations. I was thrilled! This has been a hard project to get going and I have been so busy doing research that I put it on the back burners. The Musana women are widows and/or those infected with HIV that don’t have a proper source of income. They were set up by HELP International last year. They make earrings and necklaces and with the help of HELP market them across the world. Nearly every night, we have dance practice for our traditional African dance that we will be presenting at the AIDS festival this Saturday. We all look ridiculous but it is a lot of fun. Small school girls come and try to teach us, but just shake their hands and laugh at us.
This week, my eyes were really opened. I met with Betty from the Musana group. She is 19 years old and has two girls, Ssanyu age 4 and Margaret age 3. She was an orphan and a family of brothers and sisters hired her to be their house girl. One of the brothers raped her several times and the children were the result. She lives in a tiny 5 ft by 5 ft room with her two daughters. Because one of the brothers is the father of the children he is called her husband although they are not married. The husband and his sisters still expect her to do the house girl chores for free now. They give her a long list of things to do everyday to keep her busy because they don’t want her going to the Musana group to get an income. Even though, the husband doesn’t give her any money at all. To get around this, she wakes up extra early in the morning to do the chores so she has time to go to Musana. Earlier this week, she accidentally burnt the beans that were meant for dinner. Her husband and his sisters beat her mercilessly. When I saw her, her face was completely swollen and I could hardly recognize her. Everyday, they verbally abuse her and they have even started in on the oldest child because they say that she isn’t the brother’s daughter. We are working with her to find a different home that is closer to the Musana group. Even then, I don’t know how she can keep the husband and his sisters away. Her oldest daughter, Ssanyu, starts school next year and she doesn’t have the $75/year to pay for her daughter’s schooling. I knew that these kinds of situations are everywhere especially here in Uganda, but to experience it first hand has really shocked me. Hopefully, we can help her to get out of this situation and to have a better both for her and her daughters.