What I'd like for my 30th birthday

Chocolate Kahlua Cupcakes

Quick Update!

Busy week at the orphanage. I'm taking the children and Mama Africa into town today to get some food (green bananas), books, and clothes. This should see them through the next month or so. There are 16 kids at the orphanage (mostly from northern Uganda), all in Primary 1 and Primary 2(ages 5-8). The orphanage is basically one long mud hut with two rooms for classes/sleeping area. There is an outdoor charcoal pit for cooking, an outdoor toilet area, and a field where the kids play. Mama Africa has owned the place for fifteen years or so, and she has two full-time teachers/caretakers. One, Esther, speaks English. The rest - including the children - speak the local language. One child, Talent, doesn't speak at all, and the other Joaiane, is partially blind. The other seem somewhat adjusted, although the lack of school materials mean they are only learning 1-2 hours a day. The rest of the time they sit in huddles. Yesterday I taught them how to play freeze tag and duck-duck goose, a big hit. We also played football and they somehow managed to pop two balls by kicking them into a pineapple patch. I think today I may try some kind of expressive art therapy.

Mama Africa makes her own hand creme (more like perfumed lard) which she hopes to eventually sell in town. I'm looking for small glass containers and sticky labels (to wrap around the jars). If you have any thing like this, please send my way (or if you are in DC give to Elizabeth before August 24). Letters seem to take forever (or maybe the post girl is holding them hostage because I refused to pay $1 for a single postcard!) but packages arrive in a timely fashion (6-8 weeks). Also...I would LOVE a novel or two!! Particularly Ron Carlson's "The Signal" or Andrew Rice's "The Teeth May Smile but the Heart Does Not Forget: Murder and Memory in Uganda".

My address:
Katie Wagner
Silent Voices
PO BOX 170
Bushenyi, Uganda
East Africa

So, yesterday I was running and a very old man grabbed my boob! I've become good at shaking hands and not breaking stride, because everyone here wants to shake hands and it is rude not to. Anyway, so I'm running on a logging road in the mountains (gorgeous scenery) and I see this ancient man ahead, all wrinkles and bags with bloodshot eyes, leaning heavily on a walking stick. He had his hand out so I slowed down to shake it, and then he swiped at me! Ha! I left him in the dust, of course. Harmless man, but funny. Then I went to get my first African dress, although I daresay it was made in Japan and I paid a fortune, the Mzungu price of $11 after bartering for twenty minutes and insisting the man sew the torn belt loop. I'm wearing it right now, and feel rather matronly; it is an XL (!!) and a little big, but covers my shoulders and knees, which is a must for women here. Will send pictures soon.

A funny post later about my contentious co-worker. If anything, she makes for good stories!

In other words, I'm craving a cinnamon scone and double tall nonfat cinnamon latte. Will someone drink one for me today?!

Kigarama Drama Group

These photos are from the Kigarama Deaf School drama group performed at the local church last Sunday. We made the Silent Voices banner! Edwin (the boy in the red shirt) is teaching sign to the parents as churchgoers look on. Took about two hours to get there and then I had to sit in a three hour church service before we could start the play. No one speaks English, so everything I said to the church was translated. The only word they understood was "Obama", haha!

My first attempt at doing laundry by hand. Let's just say the adventure took two hours and I finished covered in dirty water and soap! I looked up to find three old ladies across the street laughing at me. One finally showed me a better way to scrub, using my sheet as an example. She did this for about ten minutes, and then handed me the sheet. I thought she was done so I went to rinse it in the bucket, and she said, "Not clean! Not clean! You scrub more!!" Haha! The bathing water is very questionable here (no rain in four months)...thank god for perfume!

Fish Eagles & Other Birds

Sick, sick, sick. Let's hope it's just a bad case of stomach flu. Regardless, I'm heading out to the secondary school to provide teachers with textbooks for the older deaf students. Just waiting for Robert, my boda-boda driver!

In other words, some pictures from Lake Mburo National Park. Hippos, zebras, topis, birds, warthogs, and...maybe you can spot the buffalo?

What a crazy week! My co-worker berated me for not being what she requested: a "deaf" volunteer with a capital "D". Namely one who only signed and didn't wear hearing aids, namely one who was exactly like the deaf children of Uganda. Really...any foreigner who only signed and didn't speak would not be *exactly* like the deaf children here. Apparently, I've "undone" all her hard work in getting the parents to realize that their children will not benefit form hearing aids or speech therapy (no money for either). They've been calling and asking why I didn't come with the necessary "equipment". So heartbreaking! I get her point, but there are ways to solve this dilemma through educational meetings, fundraising, and more one-on-one time with individual families. Frankly, I think my co-worker needs to have her baby and take a lot of time off. So...there's a challenge for next week.

In addition to fundraising for Silent Voices, I'm going to work PT with Beacon of Hope (an orphanage that caters to children with PTSD) and Butabika Psychiatric Hospital in Kampala. One week a month I'll be up in Mukono, about eight hours from Bushenyi. More on this later -- off to training and then Lake Mburo for a weekend of birding!