Yay for fast internet!! I'm now able to update on my entire trip!!

I'm now home. It's a bittersweet feeling. I was ready for a warm shower, for a pancake breakfast, and perhaps for a porcelain toilet but I was not ready to leave the people and life I had there in Lugazi.

Oh The Love

I've been so wonderfully and excitingly busy these past couple of weeks. Lately, the Town Council here in Lugazi threw our crew of 12 HELP International volunteers a small celebration to thank us for all we have done for their town. We have been so lucky to have the Town Council as a strong support in every project we've done. They gave a few speeches, brought in some drinks and food, and then we all jumped on the dance floor; including the mayor who was hilarious to dance with. Why are Africans so incredible at dancing?
Also, I've been working on helping some local women with minor disabilities to create a soap business. It's been such a good experience for me to learn all of the technicalities of building a business. We only have 9 days left to finalize it, get a building, perfect the soap, create a design, establish management, and to throw an opening celebration in the marketplace to make it known. No worries, it'll be done. Melissa and the town council are helping.
My disabilities class went soooo well this week! They are becoming so hopeful and are improving in their speech and agility. I've been doing home visits all morning with some local teenage girls who are so funny and awesome. We've designed goals with the parents for them and their children and are bringing in another organization from Kampala to give medical examinations and build us equipment that we need for the children on Thursday. Some of these parents don't even know what disability their child has. So I'm really excited for that event.
Also, we finished building a stove at the hospital yesterday. Yet another mud fight. While I was stomping clay, I stepped on something sharp and found a small pocket knife sized blade in my foot. I pulled it out-and it wasn't bad, I think my callouses saved my life. Thank goodness for walking tons. Then I joined some nurses for some delicious passion fruit juice that one of them made. I love these people, they are such hard workers with a desire to help their community. And I love their culture--they value relationships to the fullest extent. I have so many best friends here already! Enjoy the picts--there are plenty more to come!
P.S. oh and Please donate! Your money is already helping me make a huge difference here, I'm so grateful to be able to serve with the help of your generosity! I'm doing all I can to make every penny count. THANKS SO MUCH!! donate at www.help-international.org

Oh Rwanda

I'm in Rwanda for the weekend for a small break. Today we visited a few memorials from the genocide that occured here in 1994-it's so crazy to see the recovery that Rwanda and it's people has made in such a short time. I was at a restaurant here last night and began talking to one of the servers there. He's 18 years old and only spoke French and a tiny bit of English. So it was pretty interesting and fun to use my French, after spending a while talking I asked him how many brothers and sisters he has. It was hard to understand, but he said something like "ehh...j'ai une tante et un oncle..." "I have an aunt and an uncle..." So I asked him again about brothers and sisters. He was really hesitant, but then he asked me if I know about the genocide that happened. And then he told me that both of his brothers were killed by their neighbors who they used to be friends with until the huge political uproar between the hutoos and tutsi tribes. He also said that his mother was killed, and he didn't tell me about his father. He was only 3 years old, but he remembers. He didn't want to talk about it anymore, and I asked him if he has told many people his story. He said that he doesn't ever talk about it because everyone else has been through the same things so people talking to each other only brings back the pain that they are trying to forget. And he said it's especially hard to forget because the Hutoos that killed so many of their friends, neighbors, and even family members are still here. It's pretty hard on both ends; those asking for forgiveness, those trying to forgive, and those still holding on to hate.
He's such a cool kid. I can't help but look around me and know there are probably many of those people involved with the genocide. So so so many were killed in horrible ways.
Well, on that happy note....I'm having an awesome time, learning new things everyday, and am grateful for more and more things everyday. We are so lucky to live in America.