Just the Facts, Ma'am

This week marks my six month anniversary in country. Woo hoo! To commemorate the occasion, some mystery insect or plant decided to pay my neck a visit, but it forgot that I’ve only been here six months, not seven. Silly insectiplant.



Happy anniversary to me!

I also recently reached some important Peace Corps volunteer milestones: I ate a bug, I peed in a bucket (inside a house), and I went on a safari. Check, check, and check.


The girls at camp catching the "white ants" (termites)

 


White ants after the wings have been removed and they have been fried. Yum?

If I had a bucket list, I would also be able to cross a couple of things off the list. For one, I won a Chopped/Iron Chef competition at my PC training with my friend Matt. Our mystery ingredients were mangoes, Doritos, and matooke (green bananas). Dream come true, my friend, dream come true! I also participated in a flash mob at a camp at which I was a counselor. Surprise group dancing? Yes, please!

 

The winning dish: matooke hash with Dorito tempura battered tomatoes and mangoes

All in all, it’s been a fantastic four weeks of play time during my school break. I feel refreshed, renewed, and almost ready to start a new term. Since I’m not waxing particularly poetic today, I’ll share just a few facts, or vignettes, if you will:

1)    Fort Portal. Picture the giant mountains of Utah and the greenery of Oregon and you have this beautiful little village in western Uganda. The wind was in my hair. The crater lakes were near my feet. Jenna waited on me hand and foot. It was blissful.

2)    In-service Training. My whole crew of PC volunteers together again. Classes by day. Partying by night. No sleep. Lots of dancing and yoga and volleyball. No more cliques, just lots of love and friendship. Other than a nasty cold that decided to pay a visit and hectically planning to run some of the training sessions, it was glorious.

3)    Camp GLOW. About 100 girls between the ages of 13 and 18 and a handful of counselors and staff. Classes on leadership, on human rights, on assertiveness. Matching t-shirts. With the girls 24/7. Exhausting. Rewarding. Two moments that made me realize how blessed I am to live in the U.S. and deeply sad for the women here: 1) When the girls were making the argument that if someone has money, they have the right to make you their slave and do anything they wish to you, and 2) When the girls unanimously agreed that if God gave them a choice, they would choose to be men. Genuine bonding with 7 beautiful girls who caught a glimpse of what it means to be the future leaders of Uganda.

 

 

4)    Murchison Falls National Park. Rolling, green plains covered in trees and every kind of wildlife imaginable. Two lionesses with a freshly killed kob that had a perfectly round hole in its side. A late night run-in with a giant hippo near my tent. The most powerful waterfalls I’ve ever seen. A boat ride on the Nile River. Watching stock-still crocodiles with their mouths wide open. Seeing warthogs run, tails straight in the air, then stop and simultaneously drop those tails. Watching the elegant and somehow awkward run of a giraffe. Seeing a huge elephant tromping down the road right in front of you, birds lining its back. The snorting call of hippos half submerged in the water. The best, most relaxed group of people I could ask to travel with. I have rarely felt so peaceful, and I cannot begin to describe how utterly and immeasurably happy I am to know that places like that exist in the world.

Murchison Falls

A bit of the beauty that is Murchison Falls National Park

 

Fun Fact:

When running from a predator, the hartebeest will make it about 4 km before it forgets why it was running and stops.

Hartebeest

 

Shout Out:

Just a little shout-out to my blog's biggest mom fans: Brittany's mom and Heidi's mom. Brittany is a beautifully tanned, generous host and a sweet momma to her new dog. I unlocked the vault for Heidi, which means she is trustworthy, a good listener, and a true friend. I feel so lucky to know these two lovely ladies. Good job, moms!