The End or Just The Beginnig?

Wednesday, 2.17.10
There was a loud, harsh storm during the night. The rain against the hotel windows woke me up….but I luckily managed to go back to sleep. I could feel the sadness already start to spread throughout me as I awoke. It was my last full day in Uganda; my last day at the Building Tomorrow construction site; my last full day amongst 24 inspiring women who I have connected with over the past 1 ½ weeks; my last full day physically present in this journey....but I know emotionally and mentally it's only the beginning.

After our last early morning yoga session we met with a lady from the organization, Hope After Rape. Although extremely informative it was an emotionally heavy way to start the day. It seriously made me want to vomit when I heard her say: When a man chases you and you are unable to escape, if he successfully throws you down (aka rapes you), you are then his wife. Seriously, does this really happen? Yes it does. I wish I could be ignorant and pretend I didn't hear what she told us and go back into my pretend "safe bubble", but that wouldn't be reality, would it? I read an article in the Uganda local paper the next morning about a 13 year old girl who was in the fields farming with her 2 younger sisters and was raped by 3 men. She told her parents (which girls often don’t do for fear of being stigmatized by her family and village) and the 3 men were found and captured by the local police. I know this is a daily occurrence here, but rare that you hear the rapists are captured and punished. Hope After Rape provides psychosocial support to women who have been raped and aims to empower women to speak actively and take ownership of their rights.

Driving to the school site we saw the effects the rain had on certain villages/ slum - due to lack of proper drainage homes were flooded with muddy, dirty water….water pouring into their doors, causing many to take whatever personal belongings they can save and evacuate. Needless to say it was a depressing site, which just added to the emotional heaviness.

When we arrived at the school site we were greeted by many of the same children, women, and men that were there on Monday. The emotional heaviness started to lift. Many of us were eager to get right into the physical work. Others had activities planned for the many, many children – jump rope, dancing/imitative motor games, creating “peace” postcards, bubbles, handing out stickers (the children LOVED the stickers) and playing with soccer balls…..although we stopped the soccer ball inflating and handing out quickly as the children were fighting, surrounding the bus begging for the balls….mass chaos. We didn’t have enough balls for everyone, so they were encouraged to share and play together…..and the rest of the soccer balls were saved to use when school is in session.

I spent most of the day with the hoe….leveling the dirt in the framework of different buildings and breaking up huge clumps of solid dirt. I am not going to lie….it was physically exhausting for me – plain out hard, tiring, exhausting work - and I like to think I am in good shape - but not for this kind of stuff. But this is how they have to do things here. There are no fancy loaders or backhoes here to move the dirt, no machinery to level the ground. It is amazing to me, keeping in mind this is coming from someone who has never done this type of work before, how using such simple tools, a lot of manpower, the collaboration of many, many people, and a lot of volunteered time a rewarding project like this can come into existence. The entire school project is estimated to take 5 months with hopes of the children starting to attend the school in September. I realize that our 3 days of work here provided a very minor contribution when looking at the whole project (and probably slowed down their progress while we attempted to make some of the bricks:)....but I like to think the enthusiasm we provided by showing up to work with them to build their school will continue to last throughout the life of the school. It would be very rewarding to go back to the site and see the finished project at some point in my life.

Another rough statistic:

Less than 50% of children attend primary school even though there is free primary education in Uganda

Only 10% then go on to secondary school

Only 3% go on to university

We were told 25 trees were purchased for us to plant to symbolically represent our presence at this site. Due to lack of time only one of the trees was planted but it was a nice, celebratory way to end our time there. We waved goodbye from our bus until everyone was out of sight and distributed leftover lunch food to locals along the dirt road leading to the main road. Once we got to the main road we saw the sign designating our school (top picture).....so if I ever do go back it might be easier for me to locate than I thought....yes, that is what went through my mind.

As we drove back to Kampala that day so many thoughts were spinning through my mind:

• What do the women who I see sitting outside their home with their babies do every day? I would love to spend a day in my life as one of them to truly understand what their life is like....yes this is what goes through my brain.
• What thoughts go through the men's heads all day sitting outside their shops of mattresses, furniture, food (slabs of meat, produce) tires, bikes, clothing, trinkets, etc. Who buys this stuff and how often?
• How heavy are the baskets of bananas the women carry on their heads? How do they balance these huge loads?
• Will these children running along the roads, in the narrow alleys between homes, carried on their mother's backs receive an education? What does their future hold?
• Will it always be this way here...so primitive? Do they really want it any other way?
• What do all of these people really think of us mzungos (white people)?
• What's next for me in my life? Why am I so drawn to Africa? At some point in my life, I would love to come back here to do more, but with Madison alongside me.

I leave tomorrow morning for Nairobi, Kenya to meet up with our friend, Sach, and Madison arrives tomorrow evening:)! I plan on blogging about the rest of my journey through Kenya and then England before returning to Denver, but for now....1 final thought:

During my time on earth, I want to know deep in my soul, I am able to do everything possible to live my life to the fullest potential. I truly feel that throughout this journey, from the moment I signed my intention form in January 2009 to the past week and a half I have done just that.

Thank you for your love, support, and guidance and following me throughout this journey.......