She's Alive!

I had originally expected I'd be able to update people about my trip a day or two after I arrived, but my living situation wasn't quite as I expected. I live in the outskirts of Wakiso in the orphanage grounds in the main building sharing a room with another volunteer. My window has no glass, so when it rains I have to move all my stuff onto my room-mates bed. If the room were bigger I'd reposition my bed but we sleep in a box. Living on the orphanage can make working a 24 hour job. This is something that a lot of volunteers are struggling with - how much of our time should be out into the program. Because there is no structure to the program, it is hard to plan out our days. We have a toilet! So thankful it is not a squat toilet. But our washroom is pretty gross. We take bucket showers with only cold
Water and I don't have to look very hard to find a spider or slug somewhere in there. My first shower experience was shocking. Instantly as I poured the first bucket of water over my head I could feel my heart want to jump out of my chest - It definitely woke me up. We have running water from around 9am-7pm so I try to time my washroom visits accordingly. We have no electricity except to charge cellphones and to light the girls dormitory at night. The rest of us are left in the dark around 7:30pm.

My first couple of days have felt so surreal. The moment I walked out of the airport and was in Entebbe everything changed. The temperature was humid, the buildings were run-down, homes were half existent and the people were unfamiliar. I arrived at the orphanage and was instantly brought back to a reality that I didn't prepare myself for. Everything was so overwhelming. And truthfully I though I didn't have the strength to do this. I was frustrated at our situation and I always felt dirty. I'm not going to go into detail, but there are a lot of things at this orphanage, or in general in this society that aren't right. And because I'm only a volunteer, not the orphanage director the Ugandan political leader, it is out of my control. Although IDE death with a lot, in the end I'm absolutely enjoying every minute here (minus when I'm swearing and the natives are not). The children are amazing - they are what make looking past these hardships and frustrations, easier. They are beautiful kids with incredible personalities. The kids have such imaginations. Learning to entertain themselves with just about anything. Broken tire? Let's use it as a hoola-hoop or something to just throw around! They are also incredibly smart. The education system here is very advanced. Kids in grade 6 are learning math that we learn in grade 10! In Canada we learn the history that applies to us, these kids learn history about every part of the world! Most I them also speak 3 languages, I only speak one...

But I hope that was a fairly decent update. I typed that all out on my phone... Fingers are sore. Until next time!