Mud Between the Toes

Oh family

2011-12-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

My mom posted this on her facebook wall the other day:

Carol Thomas Neuenschwander
Made a gingerbread house over at Sheryl Sam Gayda's place this morning. All pretty and landscaped. Brought it home, set it on the table then left again to run errands. Came back...The Christmas tree in the front yard was GONE. My jaw dropped and I squeaked..."My tree!" Will hangs his head over my shoulder, and calmly said, "County Ordinance Committee removed it. Too close to the house." I was about to bean him when I realized my marshmellow gingerbread men had left the building too. I glared at him, he shrugged and said, "Illegal Aliens." I told him I hoped he choked on it...And got, "If it makes you feel any better the little yellow balls on the tree weren't very tasty."

This is why Will is my favorite little brother. He is only 16 and he already is such a cool kid. No matter what life throws at him, he just keeps going along and doing his own thing. I have decided that when I grow up I want to be like him. I am excited to be able to have a whole month of quality Paigey and Willy time after this semester.

Promontory Point and the Spiral Jetty

2011-10-22T22:22:00.000-06:00

Today is Caroline's birthday. To celebrate we decided to go to the Golden Spike Museum at Promontory Point and then visit the Spiral Jetty.

Tracks at Promontory point. We were searching for the "real" golden spike.

The water at the spiral jetty wasn't only super salty but also pink!

After the Spiral Jetty, we went to an abandoned area of The Great Salt Lake. The water line obviously has changed quite a bit.

A barrel with chain and buoy attached.

Old framework for a dock.

Southern Utah Get-away

2011-10-22T21:57:00.000-06:00

Last weekend, I decided to explore the great world of southern Utah. It was glorious! I visited Bryce Canyon and Zions National Park, St. George, and a ghost town. I spent a couple days just hiking around and breaking in my chacos. I thoroughly enjoy exploring small towns in the middle of nowhere. The locals are always so friendly and tell you the best places to check out. I just might have to go back.

At Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon

Hiking at Bryce Canyon. The water was this brilliant gray blue against the orange/peach rocks.

On my way back, I stopped by an old silver mining town. The museum was slightly disappointing so I decided to take things into my own hands. I drove my car until the roads became too rocky and then set off across the desert with my back pack to find real silver mines.

This is an old mill that they used to process the silver. I found an awesome metal gear here. It was about a foot and a half in diameter. At this point, I was several miles from my car and I tried rolling/lugging the gear across the desert, but unfortunately it was just too heavy.

This was right above the opening of a mine shaft.

One of the mine shafts.

The entrance to a cemetery. They had separate cemeteries for the Catholics and Protestants.

Apple Hunting

2011-10-22T19:25:00.000-06:00

A couple of Sunday's ago, we decided to go to a abandoned house in the neighborhood a pick the apples off of their awesome half pear half apple tree.

We were lacking real apple picking supplies so we tried using a step stool and an old measuring stick we found around the house. (oh Mary)

We were sort of struggling so Jeremy rescued us with the ladder. I would just like to add that I told Sophie exactly where the ladder was (on the side of the house) and she swore that it wasn't there when she looked. Goes to show that you can never trust a Sophie.

Caroline was such a pro with the whacking stick that she didn't need the ladder.

Jeremy made a great pie with the apples, but Gunther got to it while it was cooling on the counter. We couldn't let it go to waste though so we ate around the Gunther infected area. It was delicious!!!

Work training?

2011-06-11T15:08:00.000-06:00

I am now a workin' woman. I program new courses for Independent Study. I am learning new things everyday that I never knew a computer could do! Today, we had a training meeting that lasted far too long. So what did I do? I watched music videos.

A change of plans

2011-05-10T16:12:00.001-06:00

I heard back from the Peace Corps today and was told that I would be going to Central or South America. Also, I will not be speaking Spanish. This took me by surprise because I was told during my interview that I would most likely be going to Africa in the French speaking region. I was really excited to be returning to Africa, but the thought of actually being able to speak fluent Spanish thrilled me too. Well, I am not sure what to think now. Wait, yes I do. I am still really excited but also a little nervous too. I was not expecting this curve ball. To see potential countries of my residence, click here for Central America and here for South America.

Krebs cycle and Glycolysis or Uh Huh Her?

2011-05-04T21:01:00.000-06:00

Easy choice.

The good things in life

2011-05-04T15:06:00.001-06:00

1. Seeing segways parked on campus
2. Having white clothes actually be and stay white
3. Telling embarrassing stories to friends
4. Eating one of my all-time favorite foods (grilled cheese sandwich) with family
5. Seeing old Young Women's leaders and realizing that neither of you will ever actually grow up
6. Being greeted by invasive dogs and sneaky little bunnies (not at the same time of course)
7. Seeing and smelling tulips EVERYWHERE
8. Attempting to develop Beyonce dance moves

This semester is already proving to be quite difficult, but there is something so satisfying about completing an insanely hard homework assignment or test. Bring on the school work!

Mixed feelings about winter

2011-02-08T19:29:00.000-07:00

I have never really been a big fan of winter. Unless you are into snow sports it's useless. Because this is my last winter here in Utah, I decided that I would finally stop fighting and embrace it. So far, I feel that I have done a good job. I have gone sledding, cross country skiing, to the World Cup Freestyle skiing, and even danced in the snow. BUT today I draw the line! This morning I woke up and found a brand new dusting of snow on the ground. I made it about two steps off of my front porch before I slipped. My legs flew up over my head and I landed hard on my back/side. I couldn't believe it! First, I looked around to make sure that no one saw. There was no one around. Then, between gasps for breath I half groaned half giggled to myself. Off in the distance I could hear the bus coming. I crawled/dragged myself to a non icy spot and got to my feet. Not wanting to be late for class, I booked it down the street slipping, sliding, and arms flailing the whole way. I was such a mess and I definitely was not going to make the bus stop before the bus. Thank goodness the bus driver took pity on me and picked me up. After my performance, I was a bit embarrassed so I went to the very back of the bus. Once seated, I felt a warm trickle running down my face. I had a bloody nose. I searched my bag for anything to use to wipe it up. I had nothing except for my Alzheimer's research paper that I had spent the last several days writing. I promptly shoved CDC's recommendations and the University of Maryland Medical Center's clinical trials on my face and up my nose to stop the bleeding. Once I finally got to school, I ran to the nearest kiosk to re-print my paper. Thank goodness I brought my computer to school so I could pull the paper up. I pulled out my computer and noticed a crack on the cover and a missing piece of plastic that covers the vent on the side. Seriously! I quickly printed the papers and scurried across campus to my little classroom in the RB. I was still late to class, but at least I got both papers turned in today. Only 1 more paper, a presentation, and a test left to do this week. Oh how I love midterms. Tonight, I told Lauren that I feel like an 80 year because I am so stiff and sore. I can hardly function. Bruises are already forming on my butt and shoulder blades, but if I was really an 80 year old I probably would have broken a hip and would be in a nursing home right now recovering. After all is said and done, I am glad that I still got my papers in, that I am not a geriatric, and that winter will be over in just a few months.

Much crying

2010-10-24T15:08:00.003-06:00

Here is why:

1. Remembering good times at Lauren's expense. As you all know, laughing makes me tear up.
2. It was time for the dreads to go. These were silent weeps.
3. Brushing out my hair was the most pain I have experienced in a long time. As it turns out, my hair was on the verge of forming into dread locks on its own. So much for the whole yarn idea.

Before the process began.

Sophie and Lauren were kind enough to spend 2 1/2 hours taking out the yarn in my hair and unbraiding it.

Pile of yarn. No wonder my hair was so heavy.

I can finally scratch my head again.

After nearly 4 hours of brushing my hair, I finally got all the little tangles and mini dreads out. I lost nearly half of my hair. I filled several garbage cans throughout the house with my stray hairs. My hair is considerably thinner than it used to be. Now, I actually have to do my hair. Currently, it is in my face and causing trouble.

Nearing the end

2010-08-19T00:20:00.002-06:00

The school classrooms are done and look amazing! It is hard work building a decent sized building in a third world country without power tools. The workers were very impressed that a mzungu woman knew how to work. They all immediately had to know my name and if I was married or not.
The garden project has come to an end. We planted another nursery garden in Kikikanya. The people there are so wonderful. I couldn't think of a more deserving group. All the woman were very welcoming and out going. Apparently, I kept getting my skirt dirty from working in the dirt. Every time I would hold still for just a few seconds, a couple of women would come up and start brushing the dirt off of me. I think their favorite area to clean was my butt. Anyways, the garden looks great!
We finally finished all the field world for the HIV research. Oh my that was exhausting. We went to a few worker's camps for the sugar cane fields and everyone there spoke Swahili. That was kind of a big obstacle. We also went to a very remote rural village called Kisasi. At one point, we actually stopped hiking through the bush to get to from house to house because everyone came to us. They all had to see the bzungu that had come to their village. They had never had white people there before. Right now, we are just analyzing the data and compiling it into a report. We have been doing this for the past 8 days. Each day we spend at least 10 hrs working on the project. There is so much information that it is overwhelming. We are hoping to have everything done by tomorrow.
Several volunteers have left this last week so there are only 9 of us left. The house is very empty. We have started washing the walls and cleaning the rest of the house in preparation of moving out in a few days. This is just adding to the stress of trying to finish up all the projects. All the Ugandans seem to know when we are leaving already even though we haven't told them. As we walk through the streets, everyone comes up to us, whether we know them or not, and asks for our clothes, shoes, bags, and other belongings. Many of these people even have money. They are well to do in this society. It is getting kind of old. I do intend on giving away my clothes or just throwing them away because they are so beat up and torn already, but it is frustrating to have people do this to me. If anything, they will go to those who really need it. Well family, I will be home in less than a week. I really do not want to leave, but then again I am also excited for a new chapter in my life. I actually am looking forward to going back to school.

Sprained ankle, Rwanda, and school house

2010-08-04T04:51:00.000-06:00

A little over a week ago, I couldn’t help myself and I sprained my ankle while playing football with kids at an orphanage. Who knew that there was a giant pothole in the middle of the field? Good news, I still managed to steal the ball and prevent a goal. All the kids cheered and gave me high fives while I laid in my hole in pain. Immediately, the next morning we left for Kampala to hop on a bus to Rwanda. Sprained ankle and all, I hobbled around Kampala and Garden City (the equivalent of an American Shopping Mall) to pass the time. As it turned out, our bus left at 9 pm, not in the early afternoon as we thought. We ate real American food and watched Toy Story 3. At the end of the day, we say through a window a rap music video being shot. We were laughing and taking pictures. They were staring and waving at the crazy bzungu through the window. We danced a little for them and they mouthed to us to come around to the hotel. We figured that we had some time so we did. As it turns out, the singer was Bebe Cool. He is one of the most famous Ugandan singers. He complimented us on our dancing and said that it is his tribe’s dance. I guess our dancing lessons finally paid off. We took pictures with him and met his wife and kid. He wanted us to be in his music videos, but we had to speed off to catch our bus. The boda ride to the bus was terrifying. Traffic in Kampala is terrible during the day, but at night it is even worst. Since I was on a boda, we were able to maneuver our way through the city. The bus station was on the other side of the city. Most of the way we drove on sidewalks and hoped that pedestrians would move. Pedestrians were jumping out into the street to avoid being hit. We also drove straight into oncoming traffic. One of our mirrors broke off as he drove in between cars. At first, I had my bag on my back, but I moved it to the side because people were touching it. As we squeezed between cars, there wasn’t enough room for it so I had to hold it above my head. My knees got scrapped up and bruised pretty badly from being knocked into cars. It was really touch and go there for a while. I was a little surprised to still be alive at the end of the ride.
The 8-9 hour bus ride to Rwanda easily shaved several years off of my life. The worst part was trying to cross the border into Rwanda. It was about 2 or 3 in the morning and our driver kicked everyone off the bus and took off. We could hardly see a few feet in front of us because it was so foggy. I had African everywhere trying to steal my passport as I filled out an exit form for Uganda. Afterwards, we all walked aimlessly through the fog hoping to find our bus. After about 300 yards or so, I hobbled right into several military men with AK-47s. We stood in line waiting for our bags to be checked by these men. The African were pushing and yelling at each other in foreign languages. I felt hands touching my bag and trying to pry it open. I was sure that something was horribly wrong because of the way that they were acting. I thought that an army was after us and that we were all going to die. Eventually, we made it past the armed guards and found our bus. I never thought that I would feel so safe on that bus especially after how terrible the ride to the border was. The bus driver had thrown all the bags off of the bus and was searching them. I have never been in such a scary situation in my life.
Rwanda. What a wonderful place. The city of Kigali was so much cleaner than Kampala. Of course, it had its slums but it was very different than what I am used to. The people were clean and well educated. Also, cars actually obeyed the laws of the road. Boda drivers had nicer motorcycles, they and their passengers wore helmets, and only took one passenger at a time. The whole area reminded me so much of America. I don’t know if it has always been like this or if so much foreign aid has been given that it helped to rebuild the city. While there, we visited the genocide memorial. During 1994, 1 million Tutsis and Hutu moderates were murdered. At this memorial, we visited a mass grave containing 250,000 bodies. It surprises me that something like this could happen here. We imagine that genocides can only occur in “primitive” or third world countries. As Rwanda and the holocaust have proven, they can happen anywhere. After the memorial, we went to the Milles Colline. This is the hotel from the movie Hotel Rwanda. We ate dinner there and had a very deep conversation about the genocide. Our trip to Rwanda was wonderful, but we did not stay for long because we have so much work to do in Lugazi. I actually missed Uganda dearly. Rwanda was a fun escape, but I love the craziness of Uganda too much. It has become my home.
Since we have been back, we have made great strides in our research. We are going out to villages and schools to interview people. While we are at schools, we also sensitize about HIV/AIDS. We are slowly working on the gardens. It has been difficult to find spare time in the day to devote to gardens. On Monday, we will be planting a large nursery garden for an HIV group in Lugasa. I love working with this group. All of the members are such hard workers and an inspiration to me. We also want to create gardens for the Seeya school. This school is located in the middle of the sugar cane fields. It has a patchy grass roof and no walls. The school is barely scrapping by to educate the poorest of children in the area. Hand washing stations have really taken off. We are building at least 2 everyday this week. Today, we started construction on the Ssanyu school. We are still $500 short but we decided to start the classrooms anyways. I was helping to knock down old brick walls and to lay new ones. Also, I got to help make the cement and cut rebar. I had a lunch meeting today and our partners laughed as I limped in covered in cement, mud, and dust. I apologized for my messiness, but they just gave me a big hug and thanked me for all my hard work in the area.

Ssanyu school

2010-07-26T02:41:00.003-06:00

When we think of Africa most of our thoughts are drawn toward children with pot bellies, flies and extreme poverty. Although we cannot discount the level of suffering, many people in Uganda have refused to become victims of their circumstances. Hard work, prayers, and tears, have inspired many to rise above their situations and make their dreams a reality.

Francis and Ssanyu are a local Ugandan couple who have taken up the fight to better their lives and the lives of hundreds of children and families in the Lugazi community; including our 2010 HELP-International Lugazi, Uganda team of volunteers. HELP-International is a non-profit organization based in Provo, Utah that is currently involved with development work in six different countries. Each country is equipped with a team of unique and motivated volunteers committed to creating and providing sustainable projects to aid in the fight against poverty and to make a lasting difference. The organization works with local community leaders in each location to ensure sustainability and see that the needs of every community are fulfilled in an empowering way. Francis and Ssanyu are two such committed and devoted people with the vision of creating a better Lugazi and a better Uganda for generations to come.

Ssanyu Nursery and Primary School is located deep in the lush rolling hills of Lugazi, Uganda. It functions as a private school that closely follows the national curriculum and is home to 187 African children between the ages of 2-15. The School stands proudly in the community as a constant reminder to all that dreams do come true.

From a young age Madam Ssanyu never knew her father and was asked to take on the roll of trying to generate income for her family by working alongside her weak elderly mother at a local sugar factory. The combined wages were still not enough to be able to afford the 12 year-old girl’s school fees and she was forced to drop out of school in order to work. The following year Ssanyu would lose her mother and become an orphan at the tender young age of 13. Having only completed the equivalency of 5^th or 6^th grade, Ssanyu would spend the next 5 years of her life going door to door begging relatives for the amount that you or I would spend on a movie ticket to pay for each term of her schooling. When money was tight among her extended relatives, this young teenager found herself tossed between homes working months at a time as a house girl to try to save money, being scooped up by the generosity of church and other organization members and hidden by some of the kind-hearted teachers and money collectors of her school to help her avoid her tuition payments.

Despite almost giving up hope to continue her schooling, Ssanyu fought desperately every school term for her right to an education. Even from a young age, this woman knew and cherished the value of knowledge and learning.

“I knew the best thing was to go to school” she said.

Ssanyu faced each day with a young heart of courage and determination. This positive outlook carried her through many dark and despairing times including putting up with the culturally tolerated physical abuse inside the classroom.

“One of the teachers would beat me in the head” shared Ssanyu, “I made a promise to God that if He helps me and I get money I will make a school and these things will not be involved in my school”.

At the age of 16 a family friend who also happened to be a headmaster of a school expressed his interest in opening a sister school to the one that he was currently operating.

“He asked me what I enjoy doing” said Ssanyu, “I told him that I taught the bible to children in Sunday School at church and then he asked me if I would like to teach in his school”.

Ssanyu was then employed as a nursery teacher at Katosi Community School in her mid-teens. Three years into her teaching career, Ssanyu was reconnected with a Scandinavian organization from her youth that had previously helped to put her through one year of primary schooling. The organization invited her to join their two-year nursery skills training course that provided certification upon graduation. The offer was accepted and during that time Ssanyu married her life-long companion Francis. The two first met at church and Francis observed her character and commitment toward the children, especially the vulnerable ones.

“I knew at that moment that I could not make it in this life without her” recalled Francis, who would later earn the well respected title of 'Pastor' within the Lugazi community.

The couple began their incredible journey shortly after with some advice from a colleague at a Nursery Skills Center that Ssanyu worked at post-graduation, she and Francis began their own school: Ssanyu Nursery and Primary School.

“Through some kind people I was able to be pushed and go to a training. It was as if God was confirming what was in my heart. I told the nursery skills director that this was my desire also” she said referring to creating their own school, “and I prayed for the funds and that is how we began”.

The Ssanyu Nursery and Primary School began eight years ago with only 7 students. Throughout the course of the next 5 years, the number of students grew exponentially reaching well over 100 children and the couple accommodated by using 4 rooms of their rented personal residence as classrooms. The reputation of the way that the school lovingly and respectfully handled their children spread quickly throughout the community and they began to receive difficult cases of children. Children who were incapable of paying tuition, victims of retarded mental growth, def children, and children who were not able to keep up with the teaching speed, were among those that were sent to Ssanyu School.

“When we get new teachers we tell them they are parents to the children and that any form of physical or emotional abuse will not be tolerated here” said Ssanyu.

"We want to create an environment that favors progress” Francis added passionately, “Our challenge is to remove the strong-hold of individualistic tendencies and teach children that they share the same blood, to encourage each other to succeed and that we are all brothers and sisters”.

As the number of children and staff at the school continued to increase and the children among the influx that could afford to pay tuition decreased, the school fell financially to the point where it almost couldn’t sustain itself.

“We just kept moving and praying to God” shared Francis.

After 5 straining but successful years of running the school, the couple received notice from their landlord that that they had only 3 months to pack up and leave the property. After many prayers Francis and Ssanyu found a willing friend who owned some land and a family member to loan them some money to begin construction on a permanent school building for their students.

“The walls were easy to construct because of the cost of the bricks” said Francis, “But the roof was difficult to get”.

The school began hosting classes with only four walls and a partially completed roof. The incomplete structure provoked laughs and scorns from their fellow community members.

“We questioned whether or not to move on” shared the couple, “but the parents of our students still trusted us because of the way that we believe in respectfully handling and instilling values within the children”.

“What sets this school apart” continued Francis, “is the focus of the holistic development of the person. Many schools focus on academic excellence and that is very good, but the focus here is the child. This mentality is not a big or popular industry, but we believe that holistic development instills moral value within the child, gains the trust of the community and deeply roots within the child social principles that will allow them to contribute positively to our community in the future. We earn that trust because of our good reputation of child development and that is why Ssanyu School is different”.

With the little money that had come from those children who could afford to pay school fees and with what the couple was able to save, the school now has five classrooms, 187 students and 11 teachers. School fees at Ssanyu school range from $12 to $20 dollars depending upon the cost of books, uniforms and those that can afford to pay the extra $3 for one cup of porridge each school day. Of the 187 enrolled students, only about 80-90 of them are able to pay for their schooling expenses and even less can afford to eat daily.

Unlike the educational systems in Canada or America, the children here remain in school for up to 8 or 9 hours; that is a long time for any child, not to mention a child who cannot afford to eat.

Francis and Ssanyu have committed even more of their meager funds in an effort to feed everyone and supply each child with a cup of porridge daily.

“Whether they pay or not we are now trying to give all of them porridge” said Ssanyu, “before, only 30 children were able to take porridge. The nursery children would cry for food, so we recently decided within the past two weeks to allocate some more of our funds to buy more porridge and feed all of the children and trust God that we will find the needed money elsewhere. Finances are a challenge, but we have the heart here and we fight differently.”

The teachers and staff at Ssanyu Nursery and Primary School fight differently indeed, they fight selflessly. The average wage for a teacher in Uganda for one month is about 150,000 shillings or approximately $75. After each of the able children at Ssanyu School have paid their term fees, the school operates all of its expenses on that money, which leaves less than a quarter of the average wage for their teachers. The teachers at Ssanyu School support their families from month to month with only $15 instead of the $75 that they should be receiving.

“We have lost good teachers because they fear the financial situation; they move to better schools. You can only retain those who understand and appreciate the situation and understand God” explained Francis.

“As this term is ending it looks the same” added Ssanyu, “We will explain the situation to the teachers and ask them to trust God on this faith journey. Sometimes I’ll even leave the receipts on the desk so they can see”.

That is the very reason that Ssanyu Nursery and Primary School is filled with such loving and caring mentors and teachers. The continued selfless sacrifice and common vision of working together to develop one another and ensure another’s success has blessed hundreds.

The care and concern that the couple shares for each one of their students is overwhelming and admirable. Three enrolled children that come from broken families and tough backgrounds have been offered a home with Francis and Ssanyu.

“They were each in their last year of primary school and candidates for national exams” explained Francis, “they were all victims of a bad environment that was not conducive to their studies”.

One of the teenage girls staying with Francis and Ssanyu saw her parents divorced, her mother leave her to move to another district and her father jobless with no place to call home. The directors of the school are not naive to the hundreds of other children who fight for their right to education and their life daily. They have opened their home to a few cases, but take it upon themselves to voluntarily correct the root of the problem. Francis has designated time outside of his roles as a Pastor, School Director, community leader, father and husband to create a curriculum encompassing integrity and servitude-leadership. He is currently working with local police officers, town council members and other high ranking members of the community to progress unity, morals and ethics.

“The gap between the rich and the poor is ever increasing” explained Francis, “It is a very complicated dilemma. Here, democracy means getting ahead at any expense… usually it is at the expense of marginalized populations such as the youth and widows. We need to work together to develop our town; it is about our community and its well-being, not who is in what position”.

The story of Francis and Ssanyu continues to grow. Each day is a new day to accomplish new things and rest assured many things are accomplished every day through the hands of these exemplary people.

Among the several projects that the two Ugandans have undertaken to accomplish, building and completing the additional two classrooms for Ssanyu School ranks high on the list. The foundations of the classrooms were laid almost two years ago and have remained waist-high for a long length of time due to a lack of funding.

“I have been slowly collecting bricks for the past two years” shared Francis, “Every time I have an extra hundred shillings (approximate equivalency of 0.05 cents) that I can spare, I purchase a brick and add it to the collection”.

The two-year heap now totals over 3,000 bricks; however it still falls short. The bricks need to be supplemented by over a third and the costs of cement, rebar, timber, nails, doors, locks, delivery, labour etc. have not yet been factored into the equation. These two rooms will serve as classrooms during the daytime hours and Francis has agreed to open the space to disabled members of the community as a meeting place for them during the evening hours. Selected members of families who are struggling to pay school fees will train alongside the hired labourers to gain a marketable skill and be linked to local businesses. In return for their work, the School has agreed to forgive the related children’s tuition fees and encouragement to develop their newly found skill into profit for their family and future expenses.

As someone who shares an interest in promoting education and enriching lives, the invitation is extended to all whom this article is able to reach to see how simple projects, things that are often take for granted in our world, can inspire hope and transform lives. This story acts as a voice of hope for those who don't have the ability to speak. Join HELP-International and our team of volunteers in Lugazi, Uganda this summer and give the gift of education and community support to hundreds of children and families. Donations can be mailed directly to HELP-International (363 N. University Ave. #110, Provo UT 84601) or through PayPal online at: http://help-international.org/donors.html, including “Ssanyu School, Uganda.” in the comments section.

2010-07-26T02:41:00.000-06:00

“I knew the best thing was to go to school” she said.

At the age of 16 a family friend who also happened to be a headmaster of a school expressed his interest in opening a sister school to the one that he was currently operating.

“He asked me what I enjoy doing” said Ssanyu, “I told him that I taught the bible to children in Sunday School at church and then he asked me if I would like to teach in his school”.

“I knew at that moment that I could not make it in this life without her” recalled Francis, who would later earn the well respected title of 'Pastor' within the Lugazi community.

“When we get new teachers we tell them they are parents to the children and that any form of physical or emotional abuse will not be tolerated here” said Ssanyu.

“We just kept moving and praying to God” shared Francis.

“The walls were easy to construct because of the cost of the bricks” said Francis, “But the roof was difficult to get”.

The school began hosting classes with only four walls and a partially completed roof. The incomplete structure provoked laughs and scorns from their fellow community members.

Unlike the educational systems in Canada or America, the children here remain in school for up to 8 or 9 hours; that is a long time for any child, not to mention a child who cannot afford to eat.

Francis and Ssanyu have committed even more of their meager funds in an effort to feed everyone and supply each child with a cup of porridge daily.

The story of Francis and Ssanyu continues to grow. Each day is a new day to accomplish new things and rest assured many things are accomplished every day through the hands of these exemplary people.

church

2010-07-26T02:33:00.002-06:00

I have always been really impressed with the members here, but this last sunday was quite funny. We had an older sister stand up and lay down the law on modesty. She said, "if you wear mini skirts in Kampala you WILL get raped! It has happened before and it will happen again. Also, if you wear balance (baggy pants hanging off of your butt) the homosexuals will be turned on will come after you!" My whole team looked around at each other and had to bury our heads in our hands to stifle the laughter. As a whole, Ugandans are very frank and straight forward, but to bring up topics about homosexuality and raping is very taboo. Currently, the government is debating over a law to punish homosexuality by death. Every week church never ceases to put a smile on my face.

So much is happening

2010-07-26T01:53:00.002-06:00

Despite the bombs and threat of more bombings, we were able to resume with eye camp. We went to three different hospitals; naggalama, nkokonjeru, and kawolo. What an amazing experience! At these camps we gave out 600 spectacles, screened nearly 2,000 people, and preformed 137 cataract surgeries. I can now recognize and diagnose a cataract and conduct a vision test. The people who received surgery were so grateful to be able to see again. Many have not had vision for 20-50 years due to the cataracts. After we would pull off the bandages, we would hold up fingers and have them count. Some laughed and cried that they were able to see movement let alone our fingers at a distance. One lady started giggling because she didn't realize that I was a muzungu until she could finally see again, surprise. My favorite hospital was nkokonjeru. It is a catholic hospital so I got to hang out and talk with nuns for two days straight. They are such humble and wise women.
Since eye camp, 2nd wave people have left and the 3rd wave has come in. We lost 13 people to 2nd wave and received 3 for 3rd wave. Currently, there are 12 people in the house. It is so nice and quite, but I do miss many of the people that left. We have resumed the HIV research. We are actually going to a secondary school today to hand out questionnaires to the students. I have been left in charge of the gardens for the rest of the summer. Last week, Clara and I went to buikwe to build a nursery garden there. On our way there, our boda driver tried to over charge us, but we wouldn't let him. He was angry so he hit every pot hole and probably created permanent damage on my tail bone since I was sitting on the metal luggage rack on the back. He also drove under low hanging trees and would duck at the last second so Clara would get whacked in the face. Finally, we reached Buikwe and met our partner Paul at his office. He assured us that the garden plot was just around the corner. After about an hour of hiking up a mountain in the bush we finally found the plot, which was located far outside the town's borders. It was taking so long that Clara and I played roadtrip games on the way there. We successfully assembled the garden and as a token of the women's appreciation they grabbed their machete and cut us down a 7 or 8 foot stalk of sugar cane. We wanted to share it with them, but they wouldn't take it. We had to haul the whole thing home on our boda so that they wouldn't be offended. As we were driving on the boda, we were trying our best not to clothes line pedestrians but we may have gotten a few. On sunday evening, we took about 40 plants to an orphanage in the next village, nkoko. The kids were so excited to recieve the plants and to create a little garden plot. Many of them ran up to me yelling "madam madam we know you." I had done an HIV/AIDS lesson at their school. They told me about all that they learned and how excited they were to have me as their auntie. Times like this are the most rewarding. We drew some lines in the dirt and I taught the kids at the orphanage how to play four square. Personally, I haven't played since 2nd or 3rd grade so we made up some rules. By the end, we had a really competitive game going. We had a tournament going because so many wanted to play. Later this week, we will be building a stove for an HIV group up in Lugasa. It is a rural village about an hour south. Also, we will be building a nursery garden with this group. There is so much good that can be done in this small village. The orphans and street boys that are on the soccer team found some land for a garden. I am excited for this garden especially. This boys are amazing. We play them every Wednesday and they never cease to amaze me. They are so full of love and never give up despite their circumstances. They are great examples to me. I don't mind the fact that they school me every week on the field, although, we finally did win last week. We may of had some help from the coaches though. In Najja, our team has created an Ag school. This week we will be bringing bee keeping supplies from Kampala for the school to start up a bee keeping and honey program. We are slowing integrating ag programs to the school so the children can learn vocational skills and the school will also be self sustaining.
Once again, I will say that I love Uganda and the work here. I now know that I want to do this for the rest of my life. I have never faced so many challenges in my life, but the challenges are what makes the work even more rewarding.

bombings

2010-07-13T02:59:00.002-06:00

As many of you have heard, there were bombings in Kampala during the finals of the world cup. We live about 30 miles away from Kampala, so we were on lockdown all of Monday. Today, we are out and about working again. We have some connections with some people in Uganda's intelligence agency and they say that they are expecting more bombings this week. Hopefully, this does not happen. The people here have suffered enough. Also, if the terrorism continues we may have to be evacuated. I do not want to leave. We are continuely in contact with the US embassy. BUT Spain did win and it was a great game. Thank goodness the bar that we were in wasn't targeted here in Lugazi. One of the bombing spots in Kampala was quite close to the embassy. I am sure that some of the Americans that were hurt or killed were at the same BBQ as us on the 4th.
This last friday, we transplanted seedlings and created 11 or so new gardens for HIV positive individuals in and around Buikwe. Most of these people were elderly jajas (grandparents) that are caring for their grandchildren because the parents have died most likely from AIDS. One of the ladies that we went to deliver plants to only had one arm and she was hoeing her garden as we arrived. My eyes started filling up with tears as I saw her preparing the garden with her infant and toddler grandchildren sitting in the shade watching her. What a dedicated woman.
On saturday, we had the AIDS festival here in Lugazi. My part of the festival was to teach 300 people about HIV/AIDS and to help screen 100 people. We screened people from the age of 10 up. Only one person was positive! As a team, we performed our traditional african dance. We were even dressed in the traditional clothes. They put extra furs and grass skirt type things on their rears and around your waist to really show that you are moving your hips. The whole hall of people erupted in laughter as they watched the mzungus shake their stuff.

4th of july

2010-07-13T02:57:00.000-06:00

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.

Safari

2010-07-02T02:44:00.002-06:00

I am getting nasty e-mails from family telling me to post, so I will. These past few weeks have been quite busy. I don't think that I have ever slept so well in my life. Each night, I am exhausted after working 10 plus hour days. I don't even notice the metal bars poking through my thin foam pad at night anymore. I have grown to love the cold showers and lack of running water and electricity. I don't even notice the heat anymore. I love uganda and everything about it. Although, I do miss sweets.
This last weekend, I had the opportunity to go up to Murchison Falls and go on a safari. It was so amazing. The first day we were out at 6:30 in the morning riding a ferry across the nile. It was a beautiful sunrise over the river. I have some amazing pictures of it. Half the day, we road in safari vehicles with the tops up. We saw elephants, giraffes, antelope type creatures, baboons, warthogs, meer cats, and one car saw lions. The second half of the day was a boat ride. We saw a bunch of crocodiles, hundreds of hippos, and more elephants. I found out that hippos are actually quite aggressive. We had one coming straight for our boat. Apparently, if they ram your boat you can easily tip over even though it was a pretty good sized boat. Our driver quickly sped off. The next day, we went to the rhino reserve and saw some white rhinos. We saw a mother feeding her baby. The baby's name is Obama because his mother is from America and his father is from Kenya. The safari was super fun and we camped out at murchison falls for two nights. At our campsite, there were warthogs everywhere. Our guide warned us that they pretended to be domestic but they were not. Trixy warthogs. They were so cute and I couldn't help myself. I had to find out for myself. Yup, they are not domestic. It's a good thing that they were too lazy to chase me for a long distance. In the middle of the night, we had to be careful when leaving our tents. If the warthogs didn't get you, then the hippos might. Luckily, the hippos weren't around that weekend. The drive there was nearly 5 hours so I was glad to be back home after the long weekend.
The HIV/AIDS research is going well. We have hit a rough spot with getting all the sample sizes so I e-mailed my statistics professor at BYU for some help. So far, we have interviewed people who are infected and health care workers. We have learned so much from these people. On friday, we also had Becky and Travis come out to film some of the people that we interviewed. We also have had several HIV/AIDS sensitizations at local secondary schools. Even though I have taught at many schools already, I still get nervous speaking to 500 students at a time. A couple weeks ago, we made an adove stove at a rural secondary school in najja. It was quite fun to stomp the clay and help out with the project. I think that the students learned quite a bit too. We really wanted the students to be involved so that they can gain a practical skill and duplicate the stove in the future. Afterwards, I played volleyball with a bunch of the students. It was very interesting because they really didn't have any rules except to keep it from hitting the ground, but it was a lot of fun. Since I have been here, I have become a huge fan of soccer. We watch as many world cup games as we can. We go to local bars or the local restaurants to watch games. I am very sad that the US is out, but we had a good run.
This week at the hospital I spent a whole day in radiology. I got to help with giving x-rays and doing ultrasounds. The ultrasounds were pretty cool. We performed them on pregnant women and people with abdominal pain. We found many cysts, gallstones, kidney stones, etc. One lady came in 4 months pregnant. We did the ultrasound and all we could see were the legs and arms of the baby. I told the nurse what I saw and she immediately got a look of concern on her face. It was because the baby was on its way out. Oh, that would explain why the woman was screaming in pain. She was in the middle of a miscarriage. That is good to know for the future. I became a pro at recognizing the abdominal organs and finding medical problems. I could also tell the sex of the baby and measure the head, abdomen, and femur for the age of the fetus.
At our house, we have been having quite a few security threats. Our guard was fired because he threatened one of our cooks that if she didn't sleep with him he would shoot her. He was previously in the Ugandan army and then recruited to the LRA. Thankfully, he was able to escape from the LRA. He is a rough character though. He wanted to kill our first cook, that we fired for stealing from us, because she stole 1000 shillings from him. That is the equivalent of 50 cents. In the end, he was getting a bit too friendly with the girls on the team and he had to go. We can't be out front of the house when it gets dark because people throw rocks and bricks at us. Our new guard finally caught these two hooligans and locked them in his guard house over the night. The next morning he tied them together, placed them under arrest and took them to their mothers. Their mothers were furious. These mothers have been having trouble with these boys stealing from them. Here, the mothers either had to cane them 15 times or a mob would stone them to death. The mother's were more than happy to cane them. The other day, we saw a mob go running by to kill someone for stealing a blanket. The police are corrupt here so the people take law into their own hands. Since our guard made a public scene of the boys being caned, hopefully people will leave our house alone now. I have learned to be very firm with men here. Daily, I get asked for my hand in marriage or if a man can date me. I have to be very straightforward with them and tell them no. If you give a man a vague answer, he will take it as a yes. At this point, they become very creepy and stalkerish. Thankfully, I have become pretty streetsmart, but I am always on the lookout. Despite the normal third world problems, I love Uganda. I now know that I want to focus my career and education towards international development. I want to come back to Uganda after I have my degree(s) and serve the people here further.

Not yet finished

2010-06-15T09:33:00.002-06:00

P.S. my Ugandan name is officially Namusoke. It means rainbow. I am still primarily called Peggy, but it is cool to have a name in Lugandan. I was given the name by the anesthesiologist during the last surgery. He was a really cool guy and apparently I am named after him. He called me his white twin. Yeah, sure thing.

Busy days

2010-06-15T08:25:00.003-06:00

So much is happening everyday. Last week during my hospital day, I saw an ovarian cyst removed. It was huge! It was the size of a softball!!! I couldn't believe it. They also removed one of her fallopian tubes and appendix while they were there. It was a great operation. On Thursday, we played soccer with orphans and street kids. They were amazing and kicked our butts even though we had a few extra people on our team. These kids are part of the Youth Outreach Programme. HELP donated game jerseys and ball for these kids. I can't wait to see one of their games. This last weekend, we went rafting on the River Nile. It was soooooooo awesome but not the best place to start learning how to raft. Most of the rapids were class 5. One time we were going over a waterfall (yes, a stinkin waterfall) and I slid all the way from the back of the raft to the front. Of course, we got stuck underneath the waterfall too. We were being pelted with the water and our raft was starting to tip so we all scurried to one side to try and paddle. It was ridiculous. Overall, I only fell out two times. This was because our raft flipped or because or raft nearly flipped and my spot of the raft was completely washed out. The last rapid flipped every raft that came through. It wouldn't have been bad if I didn't get sucked down by a boil and stuck under water for a good 20 seconds. I am so glad that I had a helmet on. I also got burnt by the sun really badly. I put on sunscreen but it did absolutely nothing for me. I am burnt so badly that I have blisters on my knees, shoulders, and upper arms. I cannot sleep at night because of the pain, but it was totally worth it. I went to the hospital yesterday to meet with the head doctor about our research and we ran into Jospephine, the head public health nurse who we work with on several projects, and she gave me a big hug. I felt like crying and told her that I was burnt by the sun. Being black, she didn't understand what a sun burn was and kept slapping her hand on my burns saying that I had a fever. She didn't understand that she was killing me each time that she touched me and popping blisters in the process. The work here is going well. We are making great strides with our HIV research project. Also, we taught our first HIV lesson to a secondary school last week. It went well, but I am surprised at how much the kids do not know. We had to go back to the drawing board to change our lesson so we could address the kids questions better. HIV screening is going well as usual. In the next couple weeks, we want to open up new areas for the testing.We are trying to get our handwashing stations/sanitation lesson off the ground. We are struggling with those a little bit due to a lack of time, but I found a great rural school up in Najja that would be a perfect beneficiary. They have built this school out of nothing. About half of the students are orphans because their parents died of AIDS. The HIV/AIDS rate in this area is out of control. Hopefully, I will be able to do something to change this. As a team, we are creating an agricultural school, constructing a nursery garden, creating a mushroom house, constructing many stoves, creating disability physical therapy and support groups, conducting business training, training teachers, planning for eye camp, and expanding a school house. I love being able to jump onto a stove project, visit an orphanage, plan eye camp, work on the AIDS extravaganza coming up in July, or work with partners to improve their small projects. The days seem to fly by because we are doing so much. Today, we went up to Najja to talk to the ag school there. We were packed into a tiny taxi. These taxis are the size of a normal mini van. We had 22-23 people in the taxi. I had an adult man sitting on my sun burnt knees while a chicken was pecking my poor sun burnt arm. The ride was miserable but the meeting was great. As it turns out, the church just donated a huge water tank to the school. We also met an elderlyLDS couple who are serving their mission in the area. They just happened to be at the school. It was so great because we are the only members in the area. What a coincidence running into this couple in the middle of nowhere. I love it here and am so grateful for this opportunity and my health. I have been blessed with a very privileged life and the opportunity to serve these great people.

Wednesday=hospital days

2010-06-05T02:31:00.002-06:00

So much has been going on. I can hardly believe that I have been here for a month already. Last weekend, I had the opportunity to go into the nile. We went to the source of the nile. This is the point where Lake Victoria turns into the river. It was pretty cool. We saw cute little White African Monkeys. It takes 4 months for the water to get from this point to the mediterranean sea. So Sophie, in about three months the water that I was standing in will be passing by you. It was a fun day and we got chocolate milkshakes. It wasn't anything close to what we have in america but it was better than nothing. We all crave american food so badly. Matoka, rice, and beans every night for dinner just doesn't cut it anymore.
Last week, we went on an outreach to Buikwe with chairman Livingstone. He is the equivilent of a senetor. We went to rural villages and taught about HIV/AIDS, tested for HIV, performed Physical Therapy, and gave out perscription drugs. These people live so far away from Kawolo hospital here in Lugazi that they do not have access to any treatment. They can't even afford the 6,000 shillings for travel. That is the equivalent of 3 dollars. We were excited to do this work, but also a little disappointed that the chairman was using us as part of his campaign. Each village we went to he gave a little speech and then left volunteers to work while he went on to the next village to give another speech.
This last wednesday, I had the opportunity to work in the hospital all day. I seperated from the rest of the group so I could get more hands on learning. I was placed into the antenatal unit. I was examining pregnant mothers. Josephine, the public health nurse, showed me how to do it on one patient and then let me go. I was a little overwhelmed because I did not have any of the equipment that doctors have in the United States, nor did I have the proper medical training to be examining these patients on my own. Although, I do have to say that I am now a pro. I would check their eyelids for proper color, eyes for jaundice, neck lymph nodes for swelling, feet for edema, breast for cancer, and then I would check the baby. I could tell them exactly how far along they were just by examining their stomach. By this, I told them when their next check-up is and what their due date is. I had to feel around their stomach to find the babies head and back. I had to make sure that the head wasn't engaged into the mother's pelvis prematurely. By finding the back of the baby, I could determine it's position and use that to find the babies haertbeat. I did not have a stethoscope for this. I used a funnel looking device to listen. I compared the babies heartbeat to the mother's radial pulse. It was such a rush to hear my first little baby's heart racing away. They do not do ultrasounds here unless there are complications because the ultrasounds cost too much. About 1/3 of the mothers that I examined were HIV positive. I dispensed their Anti-retro virals (ARVs) to them and counseled them on the disease and how to keep their baby from being affected. Most of these mothers were younger than me. There was one who was 19 or 20 who didn't want to take the FREE drug because she was afraid of some of the side effects. Her main concern was that she might get rashes on her body. I feel like this is a small price to pay for having a health non-infected baby. This absolutely broke my heart. Hopefully, I was able to get through to her. Once I finished with my patients, I was able to observe two surgeries. I got all scrubbed up and dressed in my surgery scrubs, cap, and face mask. I was able to just wander around the Main Theatre (Operating Room) as I pleased. The The first surgery was on a 16 year old boy, Abraham. He had gang green in his left foot pointer toe. The surgeon, Dr. Joshua, was chit chatting with me the whole time. He was able to keep the toe and not amputate it. As he took out the dead bone, he held it up in my face to see. Gee thanks. But it was really cool. He asked me if I had medical training; I think that he wanted me to close the cut up. I told him no even though I wanted to so badly. The next surgery was cleaning out an abcess on an elderly man. I asked Dr. Joshua if it would smell. He said no. He lied. Nicole, the girl who was with me in the Main Theatre had to leave before she passed out. It was quite disgusting but also fascinating. At least a gallon, but probably more, of puss came gushing out of the incision. I gagged a little bit but I could look away. The man's thigh was half as big as it was before after the surgery. The next surgeon, Dr. Julius, invited us to the vesectomy that he was doing next. He said that it is very rare for a man to do this. Usually, they make their wives come in to get their tubes tied. Unfortunately, it was our curfew so we had to go home. It was such a great opportunity. I look forward to wednesdays at the hospital. I would never be able to do this kind of stuff in America. I love the hospital here even though it is not the cleanest. While we were scrubbing in for the surgery, there were geckos climbing along the walls and in the sink. It is definitely a third world hospital, but I guess it is better than nothing.
On Thursday, all of our appointments were canceled because of Martyr's day. It is a huge country wide celebration. People walk on foot from all over central Africa to a small town outside of Kampala to celebrate this day. Being mzungus, we drove. The holiday comes from the late 1880s. The first mzungu came to Uganda and introduced christianity. The king endorsed this and petitioned the Queen of England to send missionaries. This King's son came into power after his death and didn't like the fact that the people praised and worshipped God instead of him. He gathered up all the believers in his court which were 12 catholics and 13 angelicans and tortured them until they denied Christ. They didn't give in, so he made them march 37 miles in chains to the small village outside of Kampala to be tortured more. The man in charge of the torturing was the uncle of one of the captives. He killed his nephew without even blinking. When they remained true to the faith, they were forced to gather their own firewood to be burned alive with. As they were burning, they sung hymns. To this day, every June 3rd martyrs day is celebrated. To celebrate we first went to the Catholic church. They had priests there from all over Africa and the Vatican to lead the services. It was really neat. I shook their hands as they walked to the front stage. There were millions of Catholics there. We had to link arms and push our way through the crowd to leave, but it was easy to find the group if we got unlinked because we were the only white ones. Next, we went to the Angelican church which was the actual site of martyrdom. The gathering was still quite big but not as big as the Catholic church. Being white, we are celebrities here. They invited us to sit up front on the stage with all of the church officials. We politely declined. This was such a great experience. It is hard to imagine the kind of faith that these individuals had. I hope that I can develop this kind of faith in my life.
We have some really big projects coming up. We are going to introduce our awesome hands free hand washing station into the rural villages this week. Also, we are teaching an HIV lesson to our first school this week. We are starting a HIV/AIDS research project this next week as well. We have so much going on and it will be great!

Check it out

2010-05-31T05:27:00.001-06:00

help-uganda.blogspot.com

Lovin life

2010-05-24T07:18:00.002-06:00

I love Uganda so much. I have gotten used to rarely having running water and electricity. I have been placed as the head of public health. This is such an overwhelming job, but I am learning to delegate. I have been so busy that I haven't had the opportunity to check my e-mail for about 2 weeks. Family, I see that you all have e-mailed me several times. The internet here is so slow that I can't even get into my gmail account all the way to read the emails. The best that I can do is a blog post. Hopefully, this helps. It is official; I do not have an address. I live in a little village called Nakazadde which is right outside of Lugazi. We pretty much walk everywhere. I am becoming a pro clothes washer. I never realized how difficult it was to wash clothes by hand. I still have a problem with my whites. It is impossible to get the red clay out of them. Becky, do not wear white clothes in Africa. We met a man named Emmanuel that is a great contact for us. I was able to set up a standing appointment with him every week on Tuesday to do HIV screening. It is such an awesome experience. Last week, we screened 49 people for both HIV 1 and 2. Thankfully, no one was positive which is rare. I was swabbing people's fingers and doing record keeping. I even pulled each person aside to give them their results. Emmanuel taught us to really make them sweat while they were in the hot seat even if their results were negative. Nearly all of them had legitimate reasons to worry. It surprised me how many were not being smart and putting themselves at risk. For the testing, we did not have the proper supplies such as gloves or a sharps container. This worried me and I am working on fixing that problem. Here the clinics are dirty and they do not have the resources. On saturday, we went into Kampala for Dominoes and a football game. We are all getting very tired of Ugandan food, but were slightly disappointed by the Ugandas attempt at pizza. It was certainly better than the usual matoka, beans, and rice though. AFterwards, we went to Mandela stadium and had front row seats to the football (soccer) game between Uganda and Kenya. It was absolutely amazing! Of course, Uganda won 1-0. I love this country very much. My only frustration is that Ugandans run on a totally different time schedule. They are at least an hour or two late to every meeting that is if they even show up. They make mormon standard time look good. We are trying really hard to get actual projects up and going, but it is difficult if we can't meet with the right people to help us. I am certainly learning patience. Mike and Debbie, I hope all is going well with the job search and moving. We should have a house warming party when I get back.

Uganda!!!

2010-05-12T09:05:00.002-06:00

Oliotiya! (hello)
I am safely in country. On my way here, I ran into London by myself for a day trip. I am a master of the tube. I am surprised at how easily I was able to navigate around London without a map or clue of what I was doing especially since I am still confused about the bus system in provo. I stumbled upon buckingham palace. It is so amazing in real life. I even got yelled at by a bobby. From there I went to Kenya. It is just like the Lion King. There were moths there the size of my hand. The airport there was nasty, but it was quite the experience. Kenya and Uganda look nothing alike. Kenya is more of a safari while Uganda is a tropical forest. We drive through a rain forest on the way to church. I have already eaten fried grasshoppers. It is apparently a special treat here. Our team has already made two adobe stoves. The children here love us and follow us everywhere yelling "myzungos myzungos" (white people white people). Everywhere I go, I have at least 2 children holding on to each one of my hands. My first day in country I drank black market contaminated water and got hit by a car, but it is ok because I am still alive. The water bottle had a small hole in the bottom that they drilled and then filled with dirty water and super glued shut. Pedestrians do not have the right away. Everywhere we walk, people stare. They absolutely love us, but the ones that are a bit too outgoing are the ones that you have to watch. They are looking to take advantage of you. I have already had someone try and steal my bag. Our first official restaurant meal was fish and chips. I was expecting cute little fish sticks, but instead they brought us out the whole fish. The eye balls are supposedly the best part. That is a lie. They are disgusting but the fins are pretty good. During our first stove building, we were stomping and mixing the clay with our bare feet and I got clay and cement on my face so I just made little smears under my eyes. Kisha (our construction leader) told me that I had dirt on my face. I said I know; I am a warrior. He looked confused and said that in their culture they put paint like that on little boys' faces when they are going to be circumsized. Oops. Also, the women and children kneel when they greet you as a sign of respect. Today, we toured Kowala Hospital. I got to see a live operation in the major theatre (operating room) and saw a woman's uterus being pulled out. I can't wait to really get to work at the hospital. I will even be helping giving birth. The country is beautiful and the people are even more wonderful. It is so green here, but it is also ridiculously humid. For the past week we haven't had running water and the electricity is only on half the time. When we have the chance to get water, we take bucket showers. I am really getting the third world experience. Since it is rainy season, it rains super hard at least once a day. All of the myzungos love it because it is a break from the heat, but all the ugandans run for shelter and wear huge jackets and parkas. At first, all the natives here stunk like BO really badly but now they are starting to smell fine. I attribute this to the fact that I haven't showered for 3 days so I stink also, and everything I touch sticks to me. The bugs here are insanely large, and the mosquitos are even bigger. Although, we were told that the mosquitos that carry malaria are the small ones. Good thing I have my bed net all set up. Here, my name is peggy. They do not understand paige or think that it is silly that I am named after a piece of paper. I have already developed a little bit of an ugandan accent. It makes it easier for the people to understand me. I have so much to tell but no time. I also have amazing pictures and videos but I will have to wait until America to post them.

Uganda

2010-05-05T12:22:00.002-06:00

Hooray! I fly out of Pasco for Uganda at 2:30 today. I can hardly wait.

Adorable

2010-04-28T11:53:00.002-06:00

Running

2010-04-28T11:42:00.002-06:00

On Monday, I decided to start running. So far, I have not been very consistant, but it was quite the adventure. We went about 2 miles. You know how some people run with their dogs? Well, I ran with the horse. Will also came along. Afterwards, we came back and brushed the horse, Paddy, out while she munched on grass and we caught our breaths.

Shooting

2010-04-28T11:24:00.004-06:00

Mike and Debbie were in town last week. They were looking for a house in Provo because they are coming here in the fall for grad school. On Thursday, we went up in Provo Canyon to go shooting.
The view from our trap shooting spot.

These are the targets from shooting the 22.

Mike

Debbie

ME!

Debbie did awesome on the shotgun. She showed us all up.

What have we been reduced to?

2010-04-20T18:54:00.001-06:00

No toilet paper+ poor roommates

Equals

The use of napkins.

Finals time

2010-04-20T18:20:00.004-06:00

I have taken 5 finals with one to go. My easiest final was for my animal husbandry class. All we did was go to my professor's alpaca farm and visit the neighboring farms in the area. We traveled about an hour south to Moroni which is where my professor lives. We went to a turkey farm, goat farm, sheep farm, dairy farm, turkey processing plant, and of course my professor's alpaca farm. My professor and his wife fed us a great turkey dinner. It was delicious. All these pictures were taken from my cell phone so please forgive the poor quality.

This is my class all dressed up to go into the turkey processing plant. Let me just say that the movie Food Inc. is crap.

The dairy cows loved me and followed me along the fence as I walked.

On the milking carousel. I am amazed at how efficient this farm is. They recycle their manure into electricity and water.

This mare and foal were at the sheep farm. Our teacher was explaining the ins and outs of sheep farming when he realized that 90% of the class left to look at the horses. He gave in and came and looked at the horses with us.

These goats absolutely adored me. I forgot how good goats smell. Aside from horses, they are my favorite smell. My class was lined up along the fence and three goats came up just to me. One was rubbing its head on my boot and then I had one for each hand. My professor couldn't believe it.
He said that I am a goat whisperer.

I forgot how funny turkeys are. This barn had 6,000 turkeys in it. They were so curious and came right up to us and pecked at our boots.

Funeral fit for a King

2010-04-20T18:00:00.002-06:00

Our last goldfish died this week. His name is Gandalf the White. We originally had 4 fish from a prank that Lulu and Sophie did on April 1st. They put goldfish in the bathtub. We named all the fish, but sadly they didn't last very long.

Easter Weekend

2010-04-20T17:44:00.004-06:00

Easter/conference weekend was so much fun. Mike and Debbie came on Sunday. We colored eggs and then went on a easter egg hunt at the rock castle. We each hid eggs for the others. It was quite amusing. People even got quite creative in their hiding spots. Next year, you're goin down, Debbie! Afterwards, we came home and had a wonderful easter dinner. After dinner, we watched Kung Fu Panada and swam at Mike and Debbie Motel. On Monday, we went out for breakfast and then met the tow man at Sophie's house to get my car to the shop. The hydralics for the clutch went out. Debbie went off and hung out with her friend from high school while Mike and I took care of car stuff and then we out to lunch for Indian food. It was quite good. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but Mike wasn't a real big fan. My favorite part was the "white bread."

Holi Holi Holi

2010-03-27T18:40:00.004-06:00

The color festival was today at the Hare Krishna temple.

Gotcha!

2010-03-22T14:39:00.003-06:00

Lana told me one day that I would never be able to scare her. I have just proved her wrong today. She was leaving for work so I pretending to leave before her. I had already moved my car earlier in the day to the street so it looked like I was gone. I snuck into her locked van and hid in the very back. When she had gotten down the street a ways, I popped up and yelled "SMILE." That is when I got this beauty. She instantly yelped and slammed on the brakes. Perfection.

Thinkin' cap

2010-03-21T22:07:00.004-06:00

This next week is midterms. Consequently, I have 5 papers due tomorrow (monday). I have tried all weekend to work on these papers, but between ward activities and Lana's birthday weekend festivities the papers were not touched. One paper was 6 pages while the rest were shorter. I still have one more to do tonight. I have written the equivalent of 12 pages with 2 more to go. These papers are even good literary pieces, not hastily put together junk. I accredit my success my thinkin' cap. It is my coon skin hat that I got from Lana for Christmas. I have been wearing it all day, even when we have had guests at the house. It also gave me the great idea of moving Matt's car. I snuck out in the middle of our documentary movie and moved it behind the house. I then snuck back in and replaced the keys. He didn't have a clue! He looked a bit worried when he and Lana came back in and told us that the car was gone. He had the "I am super mad because my car got towed" look on his face. Gotcha!

Sophie-bot.

2010-03-20T18:53:00.002-06:00

I got those pads for Sophie on her birthday. They were a joke because she had injured herself quite badly when longboarding not too long before her birthday. She humored me and put them on, so I could snap a few pictures of her. She is such a trooper. I do love these pictures. Her facial expressions are priceless.

Oh how I miss childhood science experiments

2010-03-20T18:44:00.004-06:00

Here are some before and after pictures. Lauren and I decided to start them in the kitchen yesterday after we got done cleaning. The tree is mine. I got it at the Clark planetarium in Salt Lake when Will was here in August. We were supposed to make it together, but we never did. It was a beautiful full tree until the Canadian "accidently" bumped it.

Broom hockey=new favorite hobby

2010-03-20T18:19:00.005-06:00

After a late night of mingling and sipping cocktails, I needed my sleep this morning to prepare for the day ahead. I woke up to the smell of waffles. Wonderful. Roommates Sophie and Lulu had made breakfast. After breakfast, Lauren, Sophie, Lulu, and I went to the ward activity. I had never played broom ball before. It was so amazing. Granted, I spent more time on my bottom on the ice than actually running for the ball, nonetheless, I had so much fun. My elbows and hips are super tender and I can already feel bruises and bumps coming in, but it was totally worth it. At first I was on a great team with Sophie and Lulu. We were winning about half of our games, but then I got transferred to another team that wasn't very good. They were playing the reigning champion team and we actually won! My team gave me the credit for their success. I decided that I will take that credit. The best part is when I run into guys from our ward throughout the day and they compliment me on my playing. I can't help but smile. After the ward activity, some guys from the ward came over and checked out our cocktail stock. We sat around and chatted while sipping cocktails once again.

This afternoon/early evening, Lauren and I went to the grocery store and then to a documentary showing entitled "I am Chris Purdie" at Velour.

Tonight, I think that I am supposed to watch anime movies with Lana and begin the celebration of her birthday that is tomorrow. What happened to today? This was supposed to be my homework day, but what a wonderful day it has been.

Call me Miss Flinestone, I can make your bedrock

2010-03-20T15:48:00.005-06:00

The cocktail party was a total success. We had a lot of fun. The first few pictures show the clean house. Lauren and I spent a great deal of the day Friday cleaning and buying supplies for the party. We had a steady flow of people throughout the night. Everyone dressed up in their finest and we had jazz music playing in the background. Although, the biggest hit was the nintendo. Someone fired up the James Bond Goldeneye game. Their reasoning was that this was a classy party and James Bond is a classy gentleman. Whatever, it worked. Everyone took turns playing the game. A couple of people even busted out with the guitars. We just set everything out in the kitchen and people mixed their own drinks. We had a few recipes on the chalkboard above the table. Everyone enjoyed the drink entitled "Safe Sex On The Beach." The evening turned out quite well. We still have massive amounts of left over soda water, various juices, half and half, and margarita mixes.

Tea time

2010-03-20T15:42:00.004-06:00

Last saturday, our relief society had a tea party to celebrate the RS's birthday. The last time I went to the tea party was probably over 10 years ago. Anyways, I thought that the tea party turned out well.

Trixy Hilary

2010-03-20T15:26:00.005-06:00

Ok, these pictures ended up totally out of order, but I have a hard time figuring out the right order because the actual pictures don't show up. They show up as numbers and letters. If anyone knows how to make the pictures show up as actual pictures when I am writing a blog, please let me know.
Anyways, I came home from class one day and clearly Hilary was bored. I walked in the front door and wondered where all the pillows in the living room went. Since we have a million pillows in the front room, they are kind of hard to miss. I knew immediately that Hilary was up to something. I walked into my room and noticed that someone fixed my bed.hmmmm I then saw a little piece of pillow stuffing on the floor next to my bed. I knew immediately that my mattress had been replaced with pillows. I flipped back my covers and yes I was right. I then looked in Lauren's room and my mattress was on top of her bed. Oh Hilary, you trixy girl. Also, that night Lana was trying to go to sleep, but both Hilary and I were still riled up from the day. I tried to snuggle with Lana, but she wouldn't have me.

Purging my camera of pictures

2010-03-20T15:13:00.003-06:00

During the end of Febuary, I was still sick so I stayed home from church and made desserts. One is cream cheese lemon bars. I actually made these to be given out to our visit teachees. Knowing my roommates and their love of sweets, I made a decoy cake. It is a cream cheese gooey cake. I kind of just made it up. It isn't much to look at, but it was sooo sweet. The decoy almost worked. They still had to taste both, but there was still enough for our girls that we visit teach. Lana took the liberty of cutting up the lemon bars and preparing them to leave the house. She cut them into huge pieces. They were no longer lemon bars but lemon bricks.

A weekend full of surprises

2010-03-06T15:46:00.003-07:00

I was lured to the airport under false expectations. Lana asked me several weeks ago to accompany her to the airport to pick up a British friend that she met while in London. Trying to be a good friend, I agreed. The whole way to the airport I was inquiring about this British girl, Emily, and was thinking of good conversation starters. I even went into the airport to use the restroom and (not knowing what this girl looked like) analyzed every age appropriate girl that walked by to see if she looked British enough. I had a whole "welcome to America" ditty planned out for her. I returned to the car not finding this British girl. Moments later a girl stands outside my car window. At first, I thought that she looked remarkably similar to Hilary, but clearly it is not Hilary because she vowed to never return to Utah. Then, I looked at Lana to point out this girl as if to see if she agreed with me. Next, I realized that it was Hilary. What a coincidence that we ran into her at the airport! I ran out and gave her a hug. It wasn't until after I hugged her that I realized that there was no British girl. My roommates are so tricky! So I stayed up until some ridiculous hour in the morning talking to one of my best friends from freshmen/sophmore year of college. I am so glad that she is here. It seems like we haven't missed a beat. I feel like we just picked up right where we left off.

This morning, Nicole and I went to training for working in orphanages in Uganda. It was actually quite interesting. Everytime I attend a Help International meeting, I get more and more excited to go to Africa. I love everyone in my group and we are all quickly becoming friends. Afterwards, I returned home and went out to Utah Lake with Hilary and Lana. Part of the lake is still iced over. It is quite beautiful. There were even people skiing in the de-iced water. CRAZY! Next to the pike, large piles of snow have built up. It was amazing. It is things like the mountains and lakes that have made me fall in love with Provo. Tonight, we are going to Alice in Wonderland. I do not even know the storyline for this story, so I have a completely open mind. I am sure that I will enjoy it. Tim Burton is a strange director, but his work is still great. I still do not have my voice back, but this weekend is shaping up to be wonderful.

Poor Kid

2010-02-09T14:13:00.006-07:00

This kid is quite possibly my favorite little brother. A couple weeks ago he broke his arm snowboarding. Sometime this week, he is probably having surgery. I feel sorry for the poor kid. He is actually a pretty active boy as you can see in the ridiculous amount of pictures following. I just couldn't decide which were my favorites. Each picture has such great memories accompanying it. I hope that all goes well with his surgery and that his road to recovery will be speedy.

Uganda here I come!

2010-02-08T23:27:00.004-07:00

Tonight, I met with my Help International group that is going to Uganda. The reality that I am going to Africa finally sunk it. I can hardly wait! Both my country directors are amazing talented women. I want to be like them. I am excited to work side by side with them. Next summer, I would like to be a country director. I think that would be one of the most amazing jobs ever. These next three months are going to be the longest three months of my life. The following are pictures of the village Lugazi in which I will be staying.

GURU'S

2010-02-08T17:50:00.005-07:00

Last saturday, Lauren and I went to Guru's to eat sweet potato fries and to watch a free comedy show. The comedian was terrible but the food was great. I even got a huckleberry pop. Supposedly, it was bottled in Jackson Hole, Wyoming which made it even more appetizing. Someday, I will go to Jackson Hole. I even made a fool of myself by making a ginger comment that was overheard by a neighboring ginger. I definitely got the "stink eye" from him. Lauren and I took that as our signal to leave Guru's and the terrible comedian. We came home and this parasite I call Sophie decided to jump on me. Lana also joined in. Here are the pictures from the evening.

Beyonce would make the BEST hula hooper!

2010-01-26T14:37:00.004-07:00

Nicole and I were watching a Beyonce music video last night. Wow, she is an amazing dancer. We both agreed that she would also be the best hula hooper.
I am adding this video to disgust Nicole and Lauren. While Hula Hooping, we listen to music. Some great, some not so great. This particular song is one of the not so great ones.

The Lord is looking out for me

2010-01-26T14:16:00.002-07:00

I took my car into the shop today to get it fixed. My problems all started immediately when I got back from Rexburg, a strange noise was coming from underneath my hood. It wasn't very loud, but it was different than the usual purr of the cracker box. I went to the shop to get an estimate and to see if they knew what was going on. It turns out that the crankshaft was loose. The estimate he gave me was $450. Since I definitely did not have this money, I decided to park it and talk to my parents. My dad talked to the guy and was able to get the price down to nearly half of the estimate. He informed the guy that genuine Honda parts for a 20 yr old car was not neccessary. This afternoon I went in to retrieve my car. The guy was amazed that it was still running. By today, the soft unusual noise was a loud clunking. It sounded like it was going to fall apart on the spot. Keep in mind that I couldn't have traveled more than 5 miles since I first heard the noise when arriving in Provo. This problem progressed VERY quickly. The mechanic gave me back my parts and showed me what the problem was. A little key that is no bigger than 1/4 inch across had hollowed out a hole that is at least 1 inch across. This hole is supposed to just barely fit the key. This happened because a bolt was completely stripped so it wasn't holding anything together. This caused everything to rub and become destroyed. The mechanic said that someone had to be looking out for me. There is no way that I should have made it back from Rexburg. I do believe that someone is looking out for me. My dad said that he was very impressed with me. He said that most people wouldn't have noticed the strange sound let alone check it out until the car was completely dead. I see myself as a semi car savy kind of girl, but I know that the Lord opened my ears to hear this sound. Since my car problems progressed so quickly, my whole engine would have been ruined if I hadn't gotten it to the mechanic immediately. To replace an engine would cost more than my car was worth 10 yrs ago. But the problem was caught quickly and my car is once again running like a champ!

I live in a house of giants... and one fun sized

2010-01-24T21:42:00.004-07:00

I know this is nearly impossible to see, but we measured everyone's height tonight. Everyone is bunched up at the top except sophie's mark is down towards the bottom.

Warning: This post is very random

2010-01-24T20:37:00.006-07:00

These are our game faces for the ward dodge ball night. We all did very well. I even got the bishop out! I was quite proud of myself.

This is my christmas present. What a wonderful tool set it is. It will come in use especially now since my car is currently having issues.

This is part of my kitten family. Will had a laser pointer and they would follow it all over the house. They were such a joy during christmas break.

Will got a 12 gauge shot gun for christmas. Naturally, we have to test it out. Will, his friend Blaine, My dad, Brother Dean (whose land we were on), and I went trap shooting. It was a lot of fun. Blaine was an amazing shot.

Also, this last weekend I went to see the play Tartuffe with my friend Erin. It was a very amusing and clever play. I am glad that I had the opportunity to go.

New Year, New Semester

2010-01-24T19:37:00.005-07:00

So far, this new semester is going quite well. Yes, I am still very stressed, but I have decided that I will feel this way until I graduate. I am trying harder this semester to not let the little things get to me. I WILL keep my stress level down.
During the Martin Luther King Day weekend, I went to Rexburg to visit Mike and Debbie. I had sooooooo much fun. On friday night, we went out to Olive Garden in Idaho Falls. It has been many years since I have had Olive Garden. Saturday we went snowboarding. I definitely struggled but both Mike and Debbie were very patient with me and attempted to teach me how the pros do it. Poor Mike would go down the mountain backwards so he could hold me up. What a champ! I had a lot of fun though. I would like to try again sometime in the near future to see if I could actually master the art of snowboarding. That night, Debbie and I went and played tennis. We made a great doubles team! Sunday was a little challenging for me. My rear was so sore that it was nearly impossible to sit still in hard seats for three whole hours. If the lessons weren't so good, I might not have made it. That night I also got to see a friend from back home. It was great catching up with her. On Monday, we went to a hot spring pool type of place. Who thought that I would be swimming outside in the winter?! It was great fun. Afterwards, we went to chuck-a-rama. It was a delicious buffet but of course I over ate. It was a great weekend. I love my family very much. Hopefully, they come down for school in the fall, so I can play with them all the time!

Attempting to pack

2009-12-18T18:00:00.002-07:00

I have been attempting to pack all day; obviously, I have been unsuccessful. This morning Lana, Sophie, Matt, Matt's little brother, and I went to Salt Lake. We went to Decades were I got to play with the kitty, and then out to lunch at the Pie. I had a great time and the pizza was delicious. We then came home and I fell asleep on top of Lana and Lauren. Sorry guys. But it was a great cat nap. Overall, my day hasn't been super busy, but for some reason I am having trouble gathering a few sets of clothing together to throw in my suitcase. I should get on that because I fly out tomorrow morning! Oh glorious Washington, here I come!!!

Wonderful Christmas and Roommates

2009-12-17T10:53:00.002-07:00

Last night, we had a roommate gift exchange. I received a much needed new pair of socks and a coon hat. It is marvelous. I actually woke up this morning with a coon tail in my face. Apparently, I fell asleep with the hat on. At least my head was warm. Family, I hope that you are ready for me. Only 3 more days!!!

I think I can I think I can...

2009-12-16T21:04:00.003-07:00

I am almost done with these blasted finals. I just have one more which I will most likely take tomorrow (thursday). But this is no common final this is the beast of all finals... physics! Currently, my grade is right on the verge. If I do well, I will be able to bump it up. In preparation, I have recruited Ben and Jerry and we will study all night. I just can't wait to be done with this semester. On saturday, I get to go home!!! I can barely contain my happiness. Oh Washington, how I miss you so.

What is art?

2009-11-29T22:25:00.002-07:00

This last week while I was at the MOA with family, I started pondering "what really is art?" This weekend I decided to let my inner artist out. Here are the results:

Before

After

She how much I love you!!! Notice the "stress" signs mixed in. I am quite proud of my 7 hours of handy work. I don't know why my roommates are not more thankful. They always complain about the darkness of their room, so I just took the liberty of umm.... lightening it up?

500 pieces of paper- $7.98

3 rolls of tape- $5.00

The look of my roommates faces- priceless

Making history

2009-11-28T01:30:00.004-07:00

That's right. Two posts in one day. I am actually just stealing these pictures from Sophie for my family to see. Sorry Soph. Perhaps with time you can forgive me. I love these pictures despite how unflattering they are. They depict our everyday life. There's not a day that goes by that I don't have someone jumping on me whether I am laying down or standing. In this case, Sophie was trying to tap a nap at some ridiculous time in the evening. Naturally I wanted to help her sleep at night by waking her from her unneccesary slumber. Somehow, Lana joined in.

Thanksgiving!

2009-11-28T00:39:00.002-07:00

This Thanksgiving break was much needed. I really think that I was starting to go crazy! The night before Thanksgiving I had to work. I thought that it would be easy since it was the night shift and most people would be asleep. WRONG! It was ridiculous. Even the nurse had pitty on me. Between massive amounts of blood, puke, and just plain whinyness I somehow managed to survive. A resident even fell out of bed on purpose and claimed that he broke his hip. Seriously? We all knew that he was faking it because he has come up with different excuses to go to the hospital every night since he was admitted. He has been in the facility for almost 2 weeks now. Despite the fact that he was obviusly lying, I still had to monitor him and take his vitals every 15 mins which means that I didn't have time for the rest of my 30 patients. It was such a frustrating night, but at least it is over now.
Thankgiving went much better. The Lees invited me over for dinner. We went to Grandma Bingham's house. The food was delicious although I was partially asleep the whole time. I am so glad that I was able to spend this time with Sophie and her family. They are too good to me.
Today, I was able to see Mike and Debbie. We had so much fun together. I love them so much. We went out to lunch at the Happy Sumo. Thanks Lauren for directions. They also let me drive their new Dodge pick em up truck. Oh I miss driving big trucks. Next, we went to the dollar movie theater and saw Surrogates. I really liked the movie. I had actually heard nothing about it before. I love going to movies where I don't know what to expect. Afterwards, we went to the MOA. I forgot how amazing that place is. I definitely should go more often. Last, we went Laser tagging. It was super fun. We were somehow able to convince the guy to just let the 3 of us go. This allowed us all to be on our own team. It was awesome to have the whole course to ourselves. I should have totally won too. Apparently, the rankings are based on accuracy, not on the amount of kills. If it was based on the amounts of kills, I would have won. Mike was such a cheater. He covered his sensors with his hands and hat. He is such a punk. He always has been. I guess some things just don't change. I was also informed that Mike and Debbie are seriously considering moving to Provo soon!!! I can't even handle it. It makes me giddy just to think about it. Can you imagine? They would like to buy a house too. Hopefully, everything works out and Mike is able to come here in the fall for grad school. To top the day off, I got a letter from my friend Josh who is on his mission in Australia. It is so great hearing from missionaries. Although, he did chastise me for not writing him very often. Oops. I guess I deserved it. Also, I was able to briefly talk to Lana and Hilary on skype. It was very brief due to the fact that they couldn't hear a word that I was saying, but it was great seeing their faces. I guess it didn't seem real that Lana was visiting Hilary until I saw Hilary's face on the screen. Oh how I miss that girl. And Lana too, of course.
Currently, I am suffering from Lauren syndrome. I cannot decide upon a major. I think I have picked a winner. Are you ready for this? Wildlife Biology! I am quite excited because I really do love everything about it. I would like to specialize in marine biology. I think that it would be amazing. It also allows me different options when I graduate. I can either go to med/PA school or continue in marine biology. Oh there is just so many options. I rearranged my school schedule to start working on this major. There are so many classes were I just get to go play outside. I can't imagine anything more exciting.
Tomorrow is the BYU vs Utah game. Oh how I wish that we had cable right now. Never the less, I shall find a way to view this glorious game. This break has been wonderful, but I am ready for my family (Lauren, Nicole, Lana, and Sophie) to come back to me. The house is far too quiet. To cover the silence, I blast country music all day, so I guess living alone has its advantages.

Why...

2009-09-21T17:48:00.001-06:00

Why are candy corn and tampons being thrown at me?

Riding around in a convertible with British boys...

2009-08-11T10:43:00.002-06:00

Need I say more. How amazing. I think this is every girl's dream come true.

The good life

2009-06-05T10:39:00.002-06:00

Each morning I wake up around 6:30 to read scriptures with the family and to see Will off to school. I then cuddle with the pussycats and then head outside to go for my morning ride. I saddle Jake up and we're off! When our ride is over, I drop him off at the pump house pasture to eat the day away. I walk home fetch the truck and bring Jake water (which he always manages to spill all over me) and to retrieve the saddle. Afterwards, I head home to start on my "to do" list that my mom makes for me everyday so I have something to do while she is at work funding my college education. These activities include scooping poop, getting 1 ton of hay, mowing the lawn, working with the other horses, and swimming. I don't mind these activities at all, but it reminds me of how buff I must have been back in the day because I'm struggling now. Life at home is wonderful but I count down the minutes until Will gets home from school so we can play together. Lately, my dad has been incorporating "quality bonding time" in the evenings. This is where Will, Dad, and I go down to the pump house garden and plant vegetables. This means in the fall I will have taters to bring back. Tonight we're in the clear because it's graduation so we have some parties to go crash.

On tuesday, I went to spokane/ coeur d'lane for the 8th grade trip. I felt kind of wierd being a chaperone because I honestly wasn't in middle school too long ago, and all the other chaperones were parents and old! Oh my goodness those kids are monsters. I got the list of kids I was in charge of and my jaw dropped. They gave me the worst 3 boys in the grades plus Will (but Will's a good kid). I was afraid of what I would find while searching their bags. To my relief there was nothing illegal. For the most part the kids behaved on the trip up and while at the place. They did a good job of checking in with me every hour or so. On the bus trip back was when things got interesting. They seperated the boys and girls. I was on the boys bus sitting in the back with all the trouble makers. I could see them look out of the corner of their eyes to see if I was watching. Of course I knew exactly what was going on since I was once one of those kids not as bad granted but still lookin to make trouble. They were jumping all over eachother, hitting eachother, playing with whoopi cushions, squirting invisible ink everywhere, making obscene gestures through the windows to the girls' bus, etc. But don't you worry- I laid down the law and got those kids straightened out. All of the other chaperones where in the front of the bus chattin away except for one. She was my 1st grade teacher and she sat in the middle. I could tell that she was worried for me. She helped out when she could, but I had it all handled. Overall, it was an interesting experience. I don't know if I would do it again, but it was good for me.

Yesterday while riding I made some new friends. Jake and I were just heading out of the neighborhood when we ran into two dogs coming back into the neighborhood. They had already been out for their morning stroll but turned around and decided to follow us. One dog who I named Sally Sue was a big black and white husky looking dog. Her buddy was a short blonde yappy ankle bitting type of dog. I named him Runt. At first, Jake was really irritated and didn't like them at all, so he kicked at them when they got too close. After a little while, he started to like them. They kept following us. I was hoping that at some point they would get tired and go home, but they didn't. They followed us for hours! Jake and I were covering a lot of ground too. It was interesting getting the whole herd of us across the highway. With Jake I can just dart across but with the other two I had to keep calling them back to keep them from getting ran over and then herd them across when there was a big enough break in traffic. They followed us for about 3 hrs until they finally got tired and gave up. Somewhere all the way across Burbank they laid down in someone's yard until a tree. When I got home, I decided I would grab the truck and go find them. My mom didn't approve of my actions because she didn't know if they were nice or not and she had zero sympathy for their owners because they should have kept them locked up. I reassured her that they were sweet little beasts and they were my buddies. I found them right about where I lost them a few hours before. I whistled and Runt came a runnin. I grabbed him and chucked him in the back seat. Sally Sue was a little more hesitant but I quickly won her over and she hopped on in. Sally Sue sat proudly in the backseat with her head between the two front seats and breathed and drooled all over me. Gross! Runt snuggled up in my lap and rested his head on my arm. To my relief Runt had a dog tag. As it turns out they lived just down the street from me. I called my mom and told her the address. Being the mail carrier, she knew exactly which house. They were in our ward. I don't know them because they have moved in since I have been away at school. She said she was so happy that I went to find them because they truly are beloved family pets and the family would have been devastated. I dropped them off at home but no one was home so I took them around back and gave them some water. I made sure to shut the gate properly so they would squeeze out again. Apprently, my mom left them a voicemail letting them know their darlings were home safe. The father called back to thank me. If he had seen me in person, I'm sure he would have given me a big ol hug.

Overall life is great. I really enjoy spending time with the family and the animal family. Mostly, I am going to miss Will. We have a lot of fun together making guns and flares even if it does result in a small fire. We also work outside together a lot. We don't always get a lot done when we're together but it's fun. So far my favorite memory is getting him all muddy. After we unloaded the hay we had a bunch of leftover leafy stuff in the bed of the truck so we always just go on a back road and drive really fast to get it all out. We could just sweep it out but that's not as fun. While doing this he usually stands on the outside of the truck on the step rail holding to the hand hold inside with the window down. There were some great mud holes on the way and I couldn't resist myself. He didn't see them until too late so he couldn't just jump inside the window. He was absolutely covered! It was quite the sight. Later my dad saw his baby (the truck) all covered in mud so I got chastised but it was totally worth it!

Home

2009-05-31T23:29:00.002-06:00

Day 1 Sunday May 31st

I awake this morning at 6:30 am to my mother singing some hideous to the ears song entitled "wakey wackey wackey wakey". I was then informed that the animals needed to be taken care of. Will and I took the horses down to the pump house pasture and then came back and took care of the lambs. Once our animal husbandry was over we preceeded to the yard. We cleaned up here and there, carried rocks, and raked up branches. Around 9 am, we hopped in the shower to clean ourselves up to go see grandma in Spokane or in becky's terms spo-cane. My grandma was as crazy as usual. She caught us up on all the family gossip and exhausted us with her usual negative backstabbing attitude. Oh how I love that woman, no really I do. While in Spokane, we went out to Chinese food. It was delicious! I felt bad for all the tables around us because my grandma was on a roll and talking crap about everyone. It didn't take long to clear that place out. We arrived home around 8. We fetched the horses from the pump house and then fed the rest of the animals. After our chores were done, Will and I made a home made gun from metal piping, gun powder, tissue paper, lots of duct tape, and marbles. Will drove the van down to the wildlife refuge where there was lots of water just in case anything went wrong. We set everything up and of course anything that could go wrong went wrong. The gun backfired and started a fire in the dead dry plants. We quickly ran over and tried to stomp it out as best we could. We then found some buckets in the car and ran down to the ponds quick to load up with water. It was a close call but the fire was all put out. I returned home covered in ash and smelling like smoke. Our parents just chuckled a little and looked the other way; no questions were asked. That's probably for the best.

It's official!

2009-05-12T14:30:00.003-06:00

From here on out, I shall be known as Reverend Paige Neuenschwander. That's right I can now officiate weddings, baptisms, etc. because I'm an ordained minister!!! When I actually have money, I will order my certificate and hang it on the wall. I have the perfect spot picked out.

New life

2009-05-05T19:29:00.002-06:00

Feliz Cinco de Mayo pussygato. The other day we (lana and I) were watching speedy gonzalez and absolutely loved it when they called the cats pussygatos. Ho ho so clever. Being the great roommate that I am, I brought home ingredients to make taco wagon style tacos today. They were delicious if I do say so myself. Lana even made up a song in broken spanish about cinco de mayo. I also cut through the tip of my fingernail with one of her ridiculously sharp knives. I couldn't believe it especially since my nails are super thick!
For the first time ever I'm changing my major. I have decided that I need a major that I can do something with once I graduate. Exercise Science is not that major. I'm changing my major to athletic training or in other words sports medicine. It's basically the same thing but more practical. I'm also considering just double majoring since they are so similar. I have to apply for this major which stinks because I will be set back a semester, but it will be worth it. Today, I got into my intro to athletic training class that I have been trying to get into for-ev-er! School wise things are looking up. Today, was my second day of my CNA class. Oh my goodness it is soooooo boring. It takes the instructor 5 hrs a day to say things she could say in 15 mins or less. It's so frustrating. Most of the things we talk about is just common sense or I have already learned about in my pre-med classes. Yeah that's right pre-med at BYU! I'm getting the feeling that I'm slightly over qualified for this course. The upside is that I wrote a letter to a missionary today, practiced writing left handed, drew LOTS of pictures, and now know that I can count backwards from 10,000 several times. I'm trying to think of activities to do for tomorrow. Would it be rude to bring in a coloring book? Anyways, the house life is awesome! The ward is... awesome! Most importantly the roommate is... awesome! Also, we get to take our garbage can out to the road today yeah that's right our garbage can, we are legit now.

Hooray for vacations!

2009-04-23T22:59:00.002-06:00

Today, we (shelby, kincheloe, and I) went to Natalie's wedding. Ok well we obviously didn't go to the wedding, but we met her when she got out of the temple and then went to the reception hall. I loved it when the photographer called us the bride's maids. Oh really? I didn't realize that I was a bride's maid but if the photographer says so then it must be true. Ok not really. The photographer was CRAZY (yes she had crazy eyes) and not very effective. Anyways, the trip to the temple was absolutely wonderful! I'm so happy for her; she married an absolutely amazing guy. The reception was a lot of fun and we had awesome food! I forgot how much I love receptions. Afterwards, we came home and packed. In the evening, we went to a bonfire with a large group of the ward. This was my first bonfire at BYU. I didn't realize that roasted starbursts were like a little piece of heaven. Currently, I stink of smoke, but it was a lot of fun. Tomorrow, Kincheloe is leaving me for good. The rest of the week will be filled with packing to move into the new house. I'm looking forward to it!

Finals are over!

2009-04-23T01:05:00.002-06:00

So I officially finished finals yesterday (yes I took all 5 finals in two days) but the real fun didn't start until today. Today was quite productive. I went to the social security administration office here in provo to try and prove that I was indeed born on the 14th of Nov. They actually believed me this time and they apparently have to send me a completely new card which is stupid. Afterwards, I tracked down the girl that I will be replacing in the Kandell house and tried to chase her out of the house so I could move in. All attempts were useless. Next time I'll use my mean voice. I returned home to pack up most of my room. Some kids from the ward wanted me to play volleyball with them so being eager to please them I joined in on the game. Needless to say, I couldn't help myself and got sand in all sorts of unpleasant places. Afterwards, I helped shelby move some of her junk and I tell ya what she has a lot of junk! Later in the evening, we got invited to play ultimate with other kids in the ward. It was AWESOME. I was on a roll tonight. I even made a beautiful diving touchdown catch. It was amazing!!! But I'm paying for that now; my whole right leg has contusions and is scratched up. It hurts to put any weight on it, but it was totally worth it and the grass strains on my clothing bring me great joy. Concluding our game, Shelby, me, and a bunch of boys went to yozone. I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed the frozen yogurt and mocking of rich kids. What a wonderful life. Why can't I always live like this- playing sports all day, kicking back and relaxing, and socializing. School is definitely over rated.

My life is complete

2009-04-18T10:30:00.002-06:00

I have discovered the best little bakery/cafe in provo- kneaders. As I have come to find out everyone knows about this place except for me. This semester everyone in the ward always went on about kneaders. Apparently, my ward are their best customers. I got a text this morning at some ridiculous hour (around 9 ok that's not bad but I was sleeping) inviting me to kneaders. I told the guy that I couldn't go because I don't have money. He replied that it was a date and that he obviously would be paying. OHHHHH oops. So it was me and 5 other guys. Kind of wierd but not really because I was soaking it up. So long story short, it was the best breakfast EVER- delicious and free!

What's wrong with me?

2009-04-15T07:40:00.003-06:00

The last two mornings I have woken up at 5:30 to play basketball with guys in the ward. I don't know why because I do not particularly like to do active things before the sun comes up and I love my sleep way too much. Last night, I didn't get home until 2 am and I didn't go to bed until 2:30, yet I still woke up after 3 hours of sleep to go play. Maybe I'm just starved of physical activity. Friends, I blame you! If you played with me, I wouldn't be going through this terrible phase.

Best Weekend EVER!

2009-04-13T18:07:00.006-06:00

I had a wonderful weekend. It was filled with family, tennis, good food, easter festivities, and motorcycle rides.

On my motorcyle ride:

This is one of the roads that I rode down.

Everyone needs a tractor parked out front of their house.

I could just imagine how beautiful it would be in the summer when it's all green and filled with crops growing.

My sweet ride!

I look WAY better than Becky in a helmet.

Hiking the "Y":

Nickelcade:

Meeting of the crazy roommates:

Cooking the Italian Dinner Crepes

The food here was soooooooo delicious. Good call Will.

Poor boy was attempting to use the chop sticks.

This is the catholic cathedral where we attended mass while waiting for Lana.

Ahh DI and Conference

2009-04-04T14:35:00.004-06:00

It's official! I have a place to live for spring and summer!!! I've been pestering aspen ridge forever and they finally confirmed that there are for sure 2 openings, so I jumped on it and signed the contract right then and there. Also, yesterday I went to DI and found some real treasures. Ok not really but I'm pretty happy with my finds:

I got a sweet cookbook for only $1. I told my mom about it and after much laughter she said she was proud of me. They also had discarded hymn books, so I got one from some orem stake center. Now, I can practice hymns again. The shorts were a steal! I had never actually bought used basketball shorts before. Together they were half the price of a new pair of shorts.

We camped out in our living room it was great. On the floor we have our mattresses laid out. It's kind of hard to see but the sign on the door says "no boys allowed- you know who you are" that sign was directed towards one boy in our ward who is always over and he's super annoying. He never knocks!!! He just opens the door and waltzes on in. The sign worked for friday night he saw it and went away but saturday morning he ignored it and walked on it and then ate our breakfast! This boy is trying my patience.

For Lana

2009-04-02T21:40:00.003-06:00

Ok so I officially got tired of having long scraggy hair that has a mind of its own. To fix this problem I marched down the street to great clips and CHOPPED it all off (well a lot of it anyways). I feel much more springy now even though the weather still insists on snowy all the bloody time! Lana, do you recognize that hideous shirt?

Beatles!

2009-04-01T19:12:00.002-06:00

Currently, I am listening to the beatles which brings me much joy because it reminds me of last semester. Also, I am quite depressed because I have to cut my fingernails for my game tonight. They are quite long and beautiful, but I also don't want to slice someone's jugular during my game. Lana, I don't think I can wait much longer. You need to hurry up and get here. Also, I think I will cut my hair before you get here and you should too. My hair needs help very badly! Becky, are you going to come to conference with Lauren and I this weekend? Also, I wish you had a frickin phone!!! Lauren, I love you.

Isn't BYU grand?

2009-03-22T18:52:00.002-06:00

Today, I had the opportunity to attend the Draper temple dedication. I was so glad. The bishopric said that they got some tickets today so everyone rushed over with their recommends to secure a ticket. The dedication was fantastic. The whole marriott center was completely packed. I got chills when we did the hosanna shout with our hankerchiefs and then sang
"The Spirit of God." This was an absolutely amazing meeting, and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to go.

Finally the semester is winding down

2009-03-21T23:14:00.002-06:00

This was actually quite an eventful weekend. It was Lana's birthday!!! (Also Kincheloe is already making plans of things to do with you Lana)
On Friday, I got a lot done.
1. I went to school
2. Let shrinks experiment on me but it was ok because I made $5
3. Take a test and I did awesome!!!
4. Go to a recital for class
5. Go to a dance party for Becky's birthday which is forever away
6. Went back to Lauren and Sophie's to watch speed racer.

Speed racer was a really good movie, well at least as far as I can tell. I fell asleep during the movie and woke up in the morning to see Sophie walking through the door. This really freaked me out because I was really confused why she was at my house, but I kind of came around and realized that I never made it home.

On saturday, we ate delicious cinnamon rolls in the morning then procedded on to our house hunt. AND we even found a prospective place. In the evening, my ward went to soldiers hollow to go tubing. This was a super fun experience. I even kept the injuries to a minimum. Although, tomorrow morning we'll really be able to assess the damage. I didn't realize that there was such a thing as ice burns! My face is a little sore and puffy in a couple of spots and I have a few scratches from people's fists, feet, and nails, but other than that I'm doin good. One time we went down as a huge group but kind of broke up part way through. I caught up to the group in front because they were stopped and my group was cruisin down the hill we all collided and somehow I got flung over the group and I skipped/slid down the hill the rest of the way on my stomach. By the time I got to the bottom, my pants were hanging extremely low and my shirt was up far too high. Needless to say, this is when I got my ice burns. Another time we had a huge chain and I was in the back pushing to start off. The chain got moving pretty quickly and I had to grab my tube quick sprint down the hill and lunge through the air and catch the chain. In the process, I knocked the wind got totally knocked out of me. I barely made it and I grabbed the guy's shoe in front of me and I pulled myself in. It was awesome because we were smokin down the hill. Throughtout the night, we tried just about any formation possible. My favorite was the flying "v." I had so much fun at this event and I would definitely go back. We also had a great testimony builder. A guy lost his single key somewhere. There was a group of about 10 of us searching for the key. We prayed for help and then proceeded to comb the hill. Surprisingly enough we found the key! Honestly, the odds were against us, but the Lord definitely helped us.
Tomorrow, Kincheloe is giving a talk in sacrament so we'll see how that goes. I told her not to quote movies again, so we'll see if she heeds the counsel of her wise and superior roommate
(me).

Stake conference

2009-03-08T19:35:00.002-06:00

Today, we had stake conference in the Provo tabernacle. I've never been there before and I was amazed at its beauty. The spirit there was so great, and I know that our leaders care about us and are called by inspiration. Our stake presidency was released which is sad because I really liked them but even more sad because my bishop is now in the new stake presidency. I really like bis alyson and it was nice to have a bishop at school that I could really get close to, but he will do great. Soon we should be getting a new bishop and we'll have to see how that goes. But yes conference was a great experience.

school ugghh

2009-03-07T00:29:00.007-07:00

I'm really starting to feel the pressure of school. Usually, I just ignore it, but it's really starting to be crunch time. Consequently, I feel like I am forever locked in my tower (aka bedroom) doing homework and studying for the never ending flood of tests. To calm myself down I was looking at some of my favorite pictures. I will share these with you.

After the haunted house in salt lake.

Walking with Jillian at graduation. I miss that kid and sadly she's getting married this summer.

Hmmmm yeah that was definitely freshman year.

Jillian and I in our cooking class senior year. This was the same class that the teacher told us to make sure to marry men that could cook because we obviously couldn't. Jillian was quite offended because she normally isn't a terrible cook. I guess I just bring out the... best of people.

District champs!!! Heck yes going state seated 1st!

Homecoming senior year with my buddies, jillian and kara. And yes I was royalty. For some reason this surprises people.

Paddy with Phoenix. I bought Paddy for my mom this summer with my first paycheck; good thing the government pays well. Also, to our surprise she was pregnant.

This is where I worked all summer- just me, my sampling pole, my country music blasting, and my muddy truck.

My lunch buddies.
My Jakers during christmas break of freshman year.
My little brother posing for my new camera out on the wildlife refuge where I go riding.

Still procrastinating

2009-03-05T23:22:00.003-07:00

Also, I did laundry today, and I am pleasantly surprised by how well it churned out. My whites are more white, clothes smell good, and almost all my socks are accounted for. But most importantly I have underwear!!! One downside- my favorite sweatshirt still has a little bit of a stain and the string for the hood came out but overall this was a successful washing. Currently, I am listening to Stand By Me by Ben King. Saturday is Hilary's birthday!!! I'm really excited for her and I know her trip to scotland will be absolutely awesome. Speaking of awesomeness, I was really disappointed that there wasn't a new HIMYM this week. Dang it! But that's ok because monday is fast approaching. This sunday is my stake conference and it's in the provo tavernacle which is super cool because I've never been there before oh yeah and because I get to be spiritually uplifted by my stake leaders.

Final game

2009-03-05T22:33:00.002-07:00

Tonight, I played in the last intramural game of... league I guess because there's still apparently a tournament. I'm excited for the tournament but also making sure not to get my hopes up too high because we're terrible and won't last very long. Also, when I get my hopes up and they are dashed I get very upset and can't really control myself; it's definitely a weakness of mine. Tonight, we tied with the other team and I guess intramurals haven't heard of OTs so that really sucked. We were definitely the better team and were up by 3 at the very end but the other team came down the court and chucked the ball in the air and made a 3 pointer. I couldn't believe it! We only had 15 secs left so I booked it down the court and I was WIDE open under the hoop, but of course my team threw the ball away. Grrrr What Do I Have To DO?! But I slapped the floor and ran back down the court pushed a few girls out of the way grabbed the rebound out of a girls hands and outletted the ball but the time was up. Well, at least I prevented them from winning. Overall, I am pleased with my performance; I played well tonight. Our scoring was more evenly distributed and yes I take credit for that. I left the low post to play wing or high post. By doing this, I was able to get my hands on the ball more. I had more assists tonight than I have in any other game of my career. A girl from the other team also complimented me she said, "WOW you're really good. Have you played before." This compliment came after I cut down from the point to help Elise who was in distress on the block. I called out to her and she bounce passed the ball to me around 3 girls. I then got the ball and about the free throw line and took two steps without dribbling and did a underhand lay in. I thought nothing of it but then again I have to remember who I'm playing with. But like I said I am happy with my performance and really that's all that I can control so I am pleased for only the second time (the first being after the first game where I also played awesome) after a game. To celebrate I'm deciding which homework to not do and listening to Cher and Billy Idol. I also got great news from my mother and I'm waiting for my brother to turn me down so I extend this great news to other dear friends.

seriously?

2009-03-03T16:57:00.002-07:00

I'm trying to study for my ridiculously hard test, but I'm having trouble trying to focus.
Reasons why:
1. There's a little asian girl on the verge of tears speaking in broken english on the phone. It sounds like her boyfriend is breaking up with her. I'm almost feel bad for her, but come on I'm trying to study.
2. A group of girls are studying for a marriage prep test or something useless like that. They're joking and laughing and saying the qualities that their husbands will have. grrrrr shut up!

Well, I'm glad that I got that out of my system.

Babooshka babooshka babooshka ya ya

2009-03-02T20:33:00.000-07:00

Kate Bush = nightmares
Thanks Lauren

How sad

2009-02-27T22:48:00.002-07:00

So as much as I hate to admit this I miss kincheloe. Being in my time of need, I took a nap in her bed today although she told me specifically not to. oops But it was a good nap.

What I sawl today!

2009-02-26T16:54:00.006-07:00

Today I was meandering my way to school and this is what I saw:

Lana's Van + Silly Old Ladies = Laughter

Yeah, I thought it was pretty amusing.

Also, Kincheloe went home for the weekend. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself! I'm not used to sleeping alone even when I went home for the weekend I slept with my mom.

BYU refs are a joke!

2009-02-24T22:37:00.002-07:00

You know there's something wrong when I have to tell the refs how the game of basketball is played. They obviously caught on to the fact that I had a superior knowledge of the game and asked me questions the whole time. Are you serious come on?!!!! Probably about 3/4 of the time they called the ball in the wrong direction after it was knocked out. Being the good honest BYU student I am, I would inform them that I was the last one to touch the ball. Actually, I would not have corrected them but the *itch that I was guarding would complain and through a temper tantrum, but it's ok because I knocked her down lots of times. Anyways, there were several instances throughout the game that I told them it was 2 shots not 1 at the free throw line or which way each team was going... Oh goodness intramurals are so frustrating.

Who Doesn't Love Having Family in Town?

2009-02-22T15:11:00.002-07:00

Mike and his wife Debbie came up (or I guess down) to visit me this weekend. They got here saturday afternoon. Being the superior cook that I am, I had delicious tacos waiting to eat. Afterwards, we went on a little hike in Pleasant Grove. It was up one of the valleys in the mountains. At first, we started on the wrong trail. It was terrible. It was basically straight up and after the first few steps my calves were already burning like crazy! After we had already hiked up a good ways we found out that we were on the wrong stinkin trail! So we went and found the actual trail, but it was covered with ice and snow. I kept on slipping and slidding all over the place. At least it kept Michael entertained. The waterfalls at the top were really pretty. On the way down, I slipped and actually just slid on my butt for a good distance because I was tired of falling. After our hike we went to Sam Hawk and enjoyed delicious Korean food. For some reason Michael ordered this gross octupus rice stuff that was super spicy. YUCK! Never again. We then scurried off to the cougarettes dance concert. It was really amazing. The choreography was sooooo good.

Hooray for self esteem!!!

2009-02-18T20:47:00.002-07:00

I call this my self esteem bowl. I wake up every morning to eat out of it. How wonderful is that!

President's day weekend

2009-02-17T15:39:00.018-07:00

On friday I left for home. Around 11, I stopped in Boise for something to drink. Everyone around me in line was loading up on beer for the night. For some reason the person behind me set their beer on the counter and left. When it was my turn, I set my chocolate milk down and the cashier asked if the 5 cases of 24 packs were mine. No. They were not. But I'm flattered. Around 12 I reached Oregon and I hit a really bad storm. I had very low visability. It was a blizzard. There were even two snow plows in front of me, but you couldn't tell that they had done anything. Nevertheless, I arrived home safe and sound at 3. The next morning I woke up at 6 to go feed the animals. I got to bottle feed the lambs. They are so cute! Although, they are very vicious when it comes to feeding time. The rest of the day I just hung out with my family. We went and saw the movie push. I really enjoyed it. On Sunday, I went to church with my family and there was no one there! There were only like 100 people. I have more people in my classes. Everyone was really surprised to see me and in a sort of jokingly kind of way asked if I got kicked out of BYU, but not everyone was joking about it. Also, that day Will and I walked down by the river. It was so nice and peaceful. I miss good ol burbank and its down to earth people. On monday, I made the long trek home. These are some pictures that I took right by the washington/oregon border.

I had a lot of fun this weekend. My family was really good to me. We watched lots of movies, played lots of games, and ate a LOT of food.

Sleepover!

2009-02-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was quite possibly the best. I love Becky, Lauren, and Sophie oh so much!

We watched movies, cut our bangs, went to sporting events, ate too much, and had so much fun.

I love this picture because it pretty much sums up our relationship.

Also, on saturday night my roommate, kincheloe, and I repelled down the side of our apartment building. Crazy! It was super intense but so awesome. I almost feel really hardcore.