Thursday June 8 (erin)

Today I went on outreach with USDC. I was worried about leaving Carli while she was still so sick but Brigitte assured me she?d be well taken care of by herself and Rita. So, off I went?well not so fast?I had to wait almost 2 hours before I got picked up making me think I had been totally forgotten, but not so. It was Charles driving and Fred and Emanuel, the psychiatric nurses in back. I can?t remember where we went but the roads were really bad and it was about a 2 hour drive. The goal of the outreach was to sensitize school children on mental health, to help them understand what it is and that people with mental illnesses are normal and not to be feared or shunned. So we reached the first school and about 100 children gathered on the ground outside. The nurses, Charles and I sat on benches at the front. I?m sure it was a very interesting presentation as Fred and Emanuel are good speakers and really animated. But, alas, it was all in Luganda. Charles translated some for me but we got bored pretty quick. I kept myself entertained by smiling at the children and making them turn their heads and blush. I think most of them were too busy looking at me and not listening to the nurses. The best part was when we were driving away and I waved at the kids and they all waved back and yelled ?byeee?, so cute.



After that, we went to another school and when we pulled up in the truck, immediately we were surrounded by about 50 children. They just stood outside my door and stared and smiled. I didn?t know what to do! So Charles said something to them and then all the girls kneeled. It was like the wave at a hockey game. Then they got called over to the presentation. I stayed in the car because I just couldn?t sit through another hour of Luganda. When it was finished, we went to another school and the same thing happened?I was completely surrounded and it was kind of scary. This time I said ?Muli Mutya? (how are you) and again all the girls knelt. They are so cute. Then they got called away again. At the third school, the headmaster made me get out of the car and actually speak to the kids?talk about my worst nightmare, speaking in front of a hundred kids wide-eyed staring at me. The teacher said they would really love it if I spoke a few words in English. How embarrassing?but I did it. I just introduced myself and where I was from. Then at the fourth school I had to do the same. Gee whiz, you?d think I was Angelina Jolie or something the way they treated me. If I reached out my hand to them a hundred kids would run over to try to shake my hand. It was a long day but kind of fun.



When I got home I found out that Carli had been completely abandoned and almost died of hunger. She was so sad because all three of us were on outreach and our phones were out of service, poor girl! Chandra and I went to the Brovad and got 3 orders of spaghetti to go and brought it home to Carli. Well, it was the worst spaghetti ever known to humankind. But we were desperately hungry. After Catrin and Ben went to visit Einer and take him some dinner, they met up with some people they had met and then went to the Laston Hotel where they had booked a room. Unfortunately the gate had been locked and the guard was nowhere to be found!! Luckily they ran into Jen at the Brovad (the rest of us were already sleeping) and she let them sleep on our floor?our cold hard cement floor! Their trip has not been much fun so far as their first night with Einer was also spent on a cold hard cement floor with no mosquito net.



See Chandra?s posting of our weekend at Queen Elizabeth National Park!