To Scar or Not to Scar?

I LOVE my roommates! The six of us sat in our purple room tonight, talking about the woes of being a girl (three guesses on why), as well as humorous and sad stories. We’re way too many people for a normal room, which enhances the experience even more; Nicole, our country director, has been feeling unwell for the last week, and finally after the safari went to the hospital in Kampala (aka the capital. Well, it IS the capital, actually). There she discovered she had little friends inside her. Yep, parasites. So tonight she lay on her bed, and Ellen lay on hers, too. Nicole and Ellen are my bunkmates.

This weekend everyone went on a safari, excepting those six of us who didn’t want to dish out $280. Instead, we adventured our way to Sesse Islands on Lake Victoria. Lake Vicky is the 2^nd largest lake in the world; don’t ask what the first is because we don’t know, but we sure remind ourselves that Vicky ranks #2. Our weekend began on Friday with everyone leaving. Finally—a house of freedom! We unpadlocked the three padlocks on the front door which usually lock “others out”, but more so lock US IN. With the floodgates open, our house aerated a little bit. Oh, how fresh air feels inside the living room! We sidewalk chalked the inside of our compound on the brick walls, writing “Uganda 2010,” etc. I felt so rebellious already, just taking matters into our own hands. Then, since so few of us were left, we decided to watch a movie during dinner. Meet the Robinson’s was our pick, and we DIED over the feast of dinner that the cooks made. Usually when so few people are at home, they don’t cook, but no one cancelled with them, so we seriously feasted. Rose, Eve, Sister Ssanyu, and David (our temporary replacement guard in Morris’s spot) came inside and watched, too. I love having people we interact with on a daily basis, in a non-work setting. Because the relationships with them are so casual, we really don’t have to stress about always staying professional and sending the right messages. Eve is my favorite by far; she seriously is like a sister to me. In her singsong voice, she calls, “Cecilly, Cecilly, do you like Eve? Yes—no? Yess—no?” I reply, “Yes!” or even “No!” if I want to tease her. If the latter, she sulks, and I immediately change my response and she brightens up. Oh, she’s so cute! We have races down the wall, where we stand with our backs to the wall, then see who can sink down to the floor the fastest. Then we race to stand up, usually shouldering our way up the wall. That description may not make sense, but we race up the wall, she teases me at how poorly I wash my “knickers” (underwear), and I always pick at the food she and Rose prepare. No one else picks but me; dad would be so proud. Ha ha AKA I can hear dad’s voice beckoning me to STOP PICKING AT THE FOOD! USE SILVERWARE! NEED A SHOVEL WITH THAT? Haha Love you, daddy!

A night of feasting and movies. Yes, movieS. After the first, we went through my iPod and went through the stash Malynne so kindly added a year ago that I never bothered to watch. After two movies, we settled into bed for the night; I in my own room, two girls in the white room, and two in the garage. Tim in his room. I love the solitude of my own room, and tell you what, that was a new feeling around here. Some nice quite Cec time.

Sesse Islands. We taxied to the dock to board the cruise (technically, a “ferry,” but you won’t hear that word ever in my description. I went on a cruise, not a ––– ride). And board it, we did. For 3 ½ hours we sailed across the water. I was mesmerized as I watched the waves hit the side of the boat, just as I had done on the family cruise too long ago (hint HINT, mom!!) I started and finished Peter Pan that day, from the taxi ride to the cruise and on the cruise itself. I am now in love with the story of Peter Pan. Why do we have to grow up? Granted, the new responsibilities we take on as we grow older really make the fun seem to go away, but we must. Living so simply forever just isn’t right, I don’t think. We need to learn to encounter more complex situations, and handle them as adults rather than wronged children. Anyway, this isn’t my journal, so end that train of thought there.

The touristy island we were anticipating arriving to was closer to Gilligan’s Island/LOST. We stepped off to a quaint little village with one chapat stand (in Lugazi, our town, we have about 10), shanty huts here and there, and a feeling of uninhabited-ness. So begins the adventures of Sesse Islands. We found a place to stay alright; it had a private beach, and the most GORGEOUS view! You look out to a boat rocking in the waves, tied to a pier that stretches out from the beach. The mountains in the background are a dark gray against the blue sky, and birds skim the water for their next meal. Oh, and don’t forget the tikki hut table in the middle of the water. I stood on the dock just looking out, reading, and sleeping, for a couple hours. After finding our accommodations, we set out on the soon-to-be most common game: finding food. NO restaurants! NOWHERE to eat! We walked around for a good two hours around the island, but nowhere was public—everything was someone’s yard or house or something. We found a place to eat and watch the game (the U.S. vs. Ghana). Well, my meal was nearly finished when I looked down and saw none other than a fly on my fork. I stopped immediately, considered what to do, and entertained myself in taking a picture of this delightful treat. Someone asked why I was taking a picture, and I shrugged and murmured an excuse. I didn’t want to disrupt anyone’s meal, so I thought best to wait till we had gone home after the whole weekend. We were DELIRIOUS by then—we’d waited two HOURS from the time we ordered to when the food was brought, one of the girls’ meals was forgotten, we didn’t know if our accommodations would still be open by the time we got back after the soccer game, their number didn’t work, the “guide book” we were using was only becoming less reliable, and we were sick of Scum. We were laughing about EVERYTHING by now, so I decided to unleash my joke by just showing everyone the picture. Joke well received. Everyone broke into fits of laughter in that I waited twenty minutes after everyone had consumed their food before I told of my discovery. I have not laughed so hard in a LONG time. I was so happy we all kept a positive attitude about the weekend, because otherwise we would have only bitter, negative comments on it.

P.S. Tim scared the FACES off of us! We were trekking back to our accommodations 11 p.m., in the PITCH BLACK through a rain forest on a deserted island in Africa. Already scared, our guard was heightened by a boda of two men that stopped by, telling us they were only security watching for “unusual activity.” We kept going, until we girls stopped, too scared to go on for now. Tim nobly went ahead alone and told us he’d “signal” us when we were to follow. Well, we probably should have decided what such a “signal” would be, because although he flashed his light to us, he disappeared a moment later. We were scared out of our PANTS. We called his name, but nothing. So convinced that something got him and was next coming for us, we hightailed our way BACK to the main road. I have never felt so vulnerable as I did when we were standing in a dark rain forest, calling for the one male protector of our group, wondering what is hiding behind that tree or in that bush. If something happened, no one would know. Oh my gosh, grateful for hymns as we sang our way back to the main road.

Next day, same story. Lots of walking to find breakfast, which then transferred iinto lunch. Cute li’l restaurant at the top of a monstrous hill with super cheap African food: Chapatti, beans, rice, matoke, posho. Some bodas took us to “a really nice beach,” which was a grass-covered man-made peninsula. Fun to dangle our feetsies in the water, but we soon left there. I was afraid for my burn by now, because I kinda sorta forgot to care to keep it from getting wet. I was worried that the g-nasty water would infect it and make me DIE. ;) From then out, I was really careful about re-dressing it, etc. We nature-walked through the edge of the forest (this time in the daytime), and the trail really was beautiful. The lake on one side and the forest on the other, I never was bored of my surroundings. Finally we got to our private beach, and THAT’S when I lay (lie?) strewn on the pier reading and sleeping.

I don’t know what my biggest threat is/was: malaria from sleeping with no mosquito net for 2 nights and forgetting to take doxy, (I could HEAR the mosquitoes constantly buzz by my ear), the bed bugs that I am POSITIVE inhabited my bed, the contaminated water infecting my now-blister-popped burn, the food poisoning, or maybe a chill from the drafty room. Who knows? We all look back to our Sesse Island adventures with so many laughs. Innumerable games of Scum, miles walked uphill, hours spent searching for food, and memories we’ll never forget. I love Sesse Islands.

I am picking up my heavy feet to work harder on my projects; today marks my half-way point here, and I am excited both looking back and looking forward. So much we’ve done, but so much more yet to happen. Even if I don’t make the greatest projects happen this summer, I want to gain experiences of everyday, real-life that I can remember. Like yesterday when the rain was pouring and everything stood still in Lugazi, Clara and I went out of the house with our rainjackets and an umbrella to go get chapat and beans for lunch. Going to the fruit market to buy my bananas for the week from Namazzi, the lady who gave me my Ugandan name: Namazzi. (means “Water.” Woo.) Dancing with Eve and Rose in the backyard. Oh, everything.