No Matter where you are, life is always the samme...

sooo here we are, I survived my second week. I have become the evil/mean grade 6 science teacher that picks on randoms and demands partcipation, the grade 4 math teacher that has become the caregiver these kids needs and the grade 5 math/science teacher who has become the best friend...

The school and orphanage i work at our both amzing and provide a new reason for living for me. Every morning regardless of the politics or bad things at these places, I get up and get ready and do it all for the glowing faces of these kids...I have learnt soo much from them about them and have learnt soo much about me from them..they are in one word simply AMAZING.

Sooo here is my insight of the week...I have decided to title this story "Assumptions" as at the current time it seems to bring my whole life together.

Sooo on Thursday afternoon I was teaching my grade 5 kids. Brian who is my favorite and likely the boy I will sponsor in the end, pulls out this toy out of his bag that him and the other kids seemed to have found in the sugarcane field behind the school. The doll is dirty, likely required batteries at some point and thus doesnt work. But this little toy alone brought soo much joy to these kids and thats when it hit me...everyone back home assumes these kids dont have anything and need all the clothes, shoes, food and other materialistic things we have. But the truth is, they don't have them now and don't feel a need for them, likely because they can't ever tell the difference between anything and for the most part they are sooo proud of the ripped clothes that they wear and the little food they eat. They are sooo rich with life and all they really need is the time, the support and that smile that will tell them, that it may suck right now but I believe in you and things will be alright...

Just before I left I had a talk on assumptions and i was told that life was all about assuming things and it was up to you to take chances in your life and believe in the things you choose to. And I have come to realize that assumptions are about trust and ....communication. Trust in the people around you, the life around you and most importantly yourself...but also communication. Assumptions made can be good or bad, and its just important that before assuming the worst or the scariest possible thing like in the situation with these kids, you talk about the things you are thinking with the ones they effect and really be ready to listen and get past any past biases you may have.

Life is funny and full of ups and downs...and this experience this week has just shown me that no matter where you are in life, the situations always repeat themselves and never really change..all that really changes is you, and your ability to deal with the things that are thrown at you...And all I want to say is that I have learnt that I am a pretty amazing woman, who always assumed the worst, but began testing my barriers and by learning about my bravery I have learnt that the security in myself will get me through it all.


Annnnd thats that...

Sooooo now to the fun stuff...I officially have a Ugandan crew!!! We rule the nights with lots of beers or african tea and many many board gamess...and i have learnt a new acronym to add to the list - FUBR - fawwked up beyound all recognition....lol..and now everyone here is using my infamous FML!...lol...

This wkend is all about the miami/new york/LA Ugandan wkend with much time spent at the beach ressorts..as long as the freakkin rain holds up...should be a nice chance to relax, unwind and enjoy the life I have been fortunate enough to be given...


Happpy Early Diwali, will post again tommorrow, after my trip to the mandhir :)

Missing everyone at home, and hoping that those closest to me are beginning to realize that the support and interest you have provided has been the energy and strength I have needed to survive the politics that these kids must be surrounded by.

Love ya's always

Arti

week 1 done, nile river conquered....noooo whatttt ellse is possible!?!?!?!

sooo..i survived my first week of woork..and its amzing how much of a local i feel like now...I take my boda to work everyday, my driver picks me up and drops me at one of the local cafe's I have grown to lovvvve, i work on my lesson plans or otther stuff, my boda driver comes and gets me again and I am atttt my new home just relaxing with my housemates....Uganda has a charm to it that I have grown to love and whille it is not hommme entirely I am realizing that I have a special ability to make anywhere home...especiallly when I have come to realize over the past couple weeks that no matter where I live my friends, family and all the others that fit in between will allows be around, evvvvven if they can be COMPLETELY USELLLESS WITH MESSAGING (and we know who I am talking about :P)...

Okay sooooo...how did i decide to reward myself for surviving my first week in UG...I decided to spend the weekend challenging myself sommme more....lets begin:

1. SATURDAY - WHHHITTTE WATTTER RAFTING ON THE NILE...
Sooo if you guys didnt know, Uganda is regarded as one of the best places in the world for white water rafting as it is where the Nile river begin..sooo thats what I did ..i went white water rafting on the nile ...where the rapids are grade 5+...
Soo when you go rafting you have the choice of picking mild or wild and whille the scaredy cat in me wanted to pick mild...my friend Tevin didnt really give me much of a choice..soo yess thats right i picked wild and went with it...
Its a whole day affair that begins with drills in the river on what to do in case your raft flips..not really my ideal situation but I was readdddy to just do it...soo once the drills are done we start the morning part of the session going through a bunch of grade 3 and 4 rapids...annnd then we hit our first grade 5...my side of the boat complleeeetely went up in the air and instead of flipping we made it back down and alll in tact and inside the boattt.WHHHHHHAT!!!! that was ammmzing...the girls on my boat and i were dyyying and were like omg,lets dooo it again..lol..soo we hit a couple moer grade 5's and then headed for lunch...
Sooo at this point the weather is absolutely amzing..its hot, sunny and not a cloud in the sky...after lunch we get back in our rafts and we look up and notice that suddenly it is pretty much pitch black outside...wtf...the clouds fill the sky and it starts to get collld...we get in the rafts and beginning paddling...about a half hour into it, it starts to rain..and at first the rain is light, but then it starts to pick up...and i dont think I HAVE EVER IN MY LIFE..seeen rain like this..it was like the rain felt like hail, but there was no haill...I WAS DYING..i thought i was going to have hypthermia...and as I am contemplating what and how the hell we are going to get out of this..my instructer goes to us JUMP IN THE WATER NOOOW...i am like excuse me?!?!...soo everyone gets in and i am in the boat, being like this guy must have had some sort of drugs at lunch ...then i feel a push and i am in the water...lol..THE GUY PUSHED ME IN...soo as it turns out whille the air and rain are freezing, the nile river is 65 degrees...soo it is like being in a warm blanket....but even still now there are ten of us clinging onto the raft that is i dunno floating in the middle of freaking no where...i began saying soo many prayers and praying to every possible GOD...i was like why the hell did i not think this through...after about a half hour my instructor tells us to all get back in and is like we need to paddle through this..and we begin....after a bit the rain started to fade and things started to get better..but even still i think i was already suffering from hypthermia...OH GOD...soo then the first raid after all this madness is a grade 5...WTF...annnd as we go through it ...the rapid pulls my fingers soo far back i think they are broken, makes me lose my paddle and fall back....annd suddenly i realize that my finger and toe could be broken...which are still sooo swollen as I attempt to type...then i have no paddle and get the joy of riding princess til the last couple of rapids where I got lucky and got one....sooo LUCKY ..that on the last rapid i feelll all the way back and got punched with the paddle and now my VERY EXPENSIVE nose is swollen..soo yea basically i am A HUGGGE ASSS ACCIDENT as we speak...lol..thankfully by the time I get home all the swelling will be downnnn and I will be back to my pretty sellf...lol

soooo after that long of a day we arrived at the end and were greeted by an amzing bbq and of course BBBEEEEER....and let me tell u ..beer bottles here are like beer bottles on crack..THEY ARE MASSSSSSSSSSSSIVE ....soo yea..lol..we know how the bus drive back to the camp site where we began was...a bunch of drunk foreigners....lol...

2. Sooo basically I got home on saturday nite..took a well deserved hott shower and passed out with a bunch of advil at 930pm...annnnd sleeeeeeept all the way to sunday morning..WOOW...that is one thing I have to say I am loving about vacation so far..I AM SLEEEEPING AND RESTING....and am learning the value of resting your body when you need to...

Anywhoo I woke up this morning annnd headed out to do more site seeeing, I got to go to the source of the Nile and see where lake victoria becomes the nile and the Ghandhi momument...it was a really nice morning which was followed by an afternoon of sitting in a cafe readdding and bonnding with the locals and a few expats..thats what I love about it here..no matter where you go..everyone talks to you and then you walk down the street the next day and you say hi to everyone becuase you know everyone..and thats how a place like this starts to feel like hommme...

SOOOOO afffter this weeekend I am ready to head back to work, buut not without a bit of insight on my life...

soo last year we all know I picked up surfing as a hoobbby...and it was something about surfing that helped me get through the UFE...it taught me about focus and the idea of mind over matter...and at that moment it was something I really needed to learn about...

And yesterday after rafting I learned that it was soo easy to trust my raft members and dive into something that could potentially kill people...and i wondered why it was soo easy to do, when in my daily life I find it soo hard to trust the people I love most and let go when I need to...and the truth is I dont know...BUUUT...just thinking about it made me begin to see that its time...Its completely time to just DIVE INTO LIFE...and let go of all the things that hurt me or have scarred me...2 weeks into this trip and I am soo aware of how amzingly blessed and loved I am and I feel sooo lucky, especially since for soo long I never thought feeling like this was possible...

soo 2 every insecurity I have now I say screw it ...I am ready for it all..and whillle communicating it all may not be the easiest, I am ready to just dive into life like I did those rapids....Helllo world is exactlly what i have to say for now :)

And Woooork Beginnns..

Soo today I began...yesterday I had my teachers meeting and was given all my lesson books and my timetable and sent home to prepare..the way my weeks wil work are as such :

Monday's & Fridays - I spend at an orphanage called Sonrise, helping my new german friend with her program..

Tuesday, wednesday and Thursday - I TEACCH & st. Florence...

Soo i know its crazie to think that people actualllly put me in charge of their kids...but yesss i am teaching!! I have been given grades 4, 5 &6 and will be teaching math and science..i did my first lesson today and after making the kids clean up the garbage in the school yard as part of their lesson on sanitation I was told that I was born to be a teacher...if sooo I beginning to gain reassurance in my inevitabel career path..I think or I am beginning to see that all those years of extra curricular homework my dad gave me, instilled the same hope he had in me in everyone my life touches..its like with a little push everyone can do what they were ment and want to do :)

On that note, I thought I would change things up a bit and instead of sounding depressed and homesick let you all see some of the amzing things I have learnt and been able to do ...becuase I am beginning to see that crying everyday isnt going to make the time go by faster sooo the more I can do and enjoy the better the time will be for me...sooo here we go :


1. Boda's are essentially like taxi's that are actually reall motorcycles..my first day here I looked at my coordinator and SAID HELLLS NO..and nooow i am a professional!!! I have my own boda driver Josef which of course is the coolest and most stylish of them all..lol..he rides bikes in his spare time and thus always pics me up in coool sports gear...I LOVE IT !..my goal in fact is to sit like a real Ugandan one day..i am still at the stage of holding on for dear life but have begun to make it look cool...lol

2. Washing clothes....soo when i looked at my house lady and told her we had washing machines back home..i realized how much of a snob i sounded like...she actually laughed soo hard she fell and told me she will FOREVER always remember me now..because welll i was the girl who was soo clueless that when I was given a bassonate and soap, i was like mhmmmm annd how the helll do the clothes wash...lol...I am 10000% fullly domesticated now..this is a true fact :)

3. Make-up and a mirror - sooo yeaaa the mirror i have is pretty make shift..thus I can barely tell what I look like and makeup...no one really cares...on good days I may put on mascara ..but for the most part i have become comfortable with being ohhhh natuuural...scarey i know, however it wont last when i get back to toronto thats for sure...the one thing that I do get here that i love is that they focus on REAAAL and NATURAL beauty..the women are gorgous and where no makeup and are soo simple...it makes everyone fall for their real beauty and in a society like ours it has become sooo refreshing.

4. Electricity..who needs it?!?!!?...yea thats right in Jinja they like to shut the electricity off randomly..they thing that no one needs it at all...WTF...soo yea people end up spending all day outside which is great when its gorgous but shity when its raining

5. Ugandan food- yup i already got sick so what does that tell you...it is likely the worst african food ever..it is soo bland...thhhat i have gotten stuck eating snadwhiches and Indian foood..I have been introduced to a resto called ASSWAD which is run by Gytri and her family..the love me to death and their coooking is INCREDIBLE..makes me feel like i am hommme..

5. Ants, bugs and everything in between...yup they have become my friends and quite the norm in this city...but I have stopped screaming and am actually making some new friends.....NOT! fawkkk i wont go that far...lol...

I think thats pretty much it ...oh except that NEVER EVER EVER leave your clothes out over night to dry..in the midst of rainy season it can pore at any minute whiiich means dry clothes becommmme soaked...FML for reall :S

SOOO thats it for now...must get to the stationary shop soo i can begin lesson plans for my kiddies tomooooorrrrow...missssing home as usual and am reallly thankful for texts, bbms and calls that continously keep me going.

lova yaaaa's always :)

And the work begins...

soo its been 4 days, and i have gotten to see my choice of placements, meet some great people, try some of the most amazing fruits and of course gotten sick...

Being here is like feeling you are in the lion king 24/7..basically during the day you hear the sounds of either african drums or the army cheering as they do their runs and in the nite you hear the sounds of every possible animal you can think of, I think the sounds of this place will stick with me forever and when I am back in the office listening to my boss and annoying clients my imagination will bring me back to this...it just sounds ammmmzing!!!

sooo as I said I got to see my placements all day friday..what they did was take me from place to place and i basically meet with the directors, hear about their cause and see if I find a good fiit for myself...like the sounds of my surrounding, the first place I got to see will forever be engrained in my mind..and whille I would describe it I dont think anyone should have those images in their heads...it was a definate strike of reality thats for sure and made me want to jump in the car and go straight to the airport leaving all my stuff here...It brought me to tears and left me feeling like i was completely in over my head, that and if i had to spend the next 30 days there, i would be in severe need of therapy when i returned.

soo with that being said the first place was an orphanage for disabled children who are suffering from just as much poverty as the lady who runs the orphanage herself....after being there we went to the second place that had the complete reverse effect on me..it made me feel like i knew my purpose in life and what my next steps had to be..this second place was a primary school that went from p1 to p6, it was a complete make shift school that is enclosed in a building that is similar to a tool shed, with wood planks for seats..but the thing that got me, was that no one cared that it wasnt an azming building and wasnt the most ideal school...all the kids just wanted to learn and were sooo excited about life...it was here inherited the cuttest littler nursery school boy who followed me from class to class..as i went to each class the kids got up and started clapping and singing - welcooome visitor, welcome madame- it was absolutely amzing and it was here i actually did cry...

the next two placements were orphanages where i will definately be spending sometime and i got to meet some adoptive parents from the US who were here waiting for the courts to decide their fate....it was an amazing day with a start that left me feeling worried and an ending that made me feel soo exciiiited :)

sooo with that being said on my first weekend here i went out and bought some supplies and am ready to embark on teaching my teachables - math and science- for the majority of my time here :) I also got to spend the weekend furthering myself in what i need to do...which will soon come out and enjoying the company of great people...soo yes that means I have met some people and whille it seems as though i'll be in a home with a revolving door for the next week, it is still pretty damn amzing :)

annnnd soo yea in my midst of getting out and about i woke up this morning with a stomach bug...lol and let you all figure out the rest...but my housemate iain as assured me plenty of water and a beer later will cure it alll...lol

missing home lots, but am thankful for all the texts, bbm's and phone calls...while at times i feel lonely - i have likely cried everyday- i feel soo blessed to know I am missed...lol..especially when i recieve drunk bbm's ...lol...

keeep on reading, and i will attempt at writing :)

Herree finalllly :)

Sooo after leaving my sister at heathrow..i began to walk through customs and suddenly this all hit me...and the only thing i could think...WHAT THE HELLL DID I GET MYSELF INTO!!!...am i crazie..me, little miss. need my hair rollers, trendy clothes and make up...am i nuts....after a couple of conversations and mhmmmy 30 hour plane ride full of many delays...i landed in Uganda..was warmly welcomed at the airport and arrived at the airport guest house for the nite...

it was here that i finally got to take a deep breath and just let it all sink in..and i think it is still all sinking in...I am beginning to see that I can do this and that I will live to tell about it ..that is if i dont go to jail for killing the rooosters that start wake up callls at like 6am...lol..

Soo after spending the nite at the airport, traveling into kamapala (which i doo love!!! annnnnnnd got to see the PwC there!..lol) and then driving to Jinja for 2 hours...I have arrived...and whille I will begin seeing whats around 2morrow for me to do ..official work doesnt start till monday...and I am beginning to get excited, but just beginning to wonder if I really can make an impact...

Til then...I am literallly taking it all in and enjoying all the trees, sugarcane fields, the nile river and lake victoria...and the fact that no matter how disappointing life can seem for the people here, everyone is happpy and laughing....

missing home, but thankful for all the bbm's and texts....let the adventure begin :)

UP UP & AWAYYY....

Its 3:15 pm on Sunday afternoon, 45 minutes from that drive to the airport, about 8 hours from being reunited w/london town and 48 hours from living way more out of my box then i ever thought possible.

While a fury of emotions and thoughts are racing through my head, I am beginning to also return to those feelings of excitement and anticipation, which make me even more ready to embark on this adventure.

Sooo here i go, leaving the best of my life behind for the next 7 weeks and doing what i feel like i was meant to do :)

Writte to y'all on the other siiiide

Arti

p.s. thanks for the great last couple weeeks, nights and days, i'm more luckkky then i ever thought :)

WWCIYD

I was thinking I would wait til Sunday to write my last post b4 i leave..but there is no way I can allow last nite to go unnoticed...

No mattter how far away I will be and how lonely I will feel at times on this adventure I gotta say that only my besties are a bbm away and waiting to hear about all the chaos....

THANKS SOOO MUCH LADIESS....WWCIYD as I sing that and the other version to the song ....