An Announcement To Be Made-Well Make It Plural

As this last week has unfolded, a matter of events make the top to be recognized.

#1 on the list of events to be made is my SAFARI!! As some of you may know, I had 3 things I wanted to do while in Uganda and a real African safari was obviously on the list. So from here on out you must read this with an Australian accent and I will be known has Marsupial Megan, thanks to my dear friend Lizard Lisa. My safari took place at Murchison Falls and it was beyond amazing to say the very least. I don’t believe I will ever go to a Zoo again and feel completely satisfied after witnessing all I saw at Murchison. We left for our adventure on a Thursday night where we stayed at our safari company’s hostel. This in itself was quite an experience being my first time ever to stay in a hostel…one word to be used, ghetto-haha which led to it being an enjoyable night’s stay. The next morning we left for our safari, which happened to be 5 hours away. However, our drive was broken up by taking a pit stop at a Rhino sanctuary. There are only, I believe, nine Rhinos in Uganda due to poachers and they are all in this sanctuary. We were able to trek on foot for the Rhinos where we were not even 20 ft from a mom, dad, and baby Rhino. OH my, it was unbelievable how massive they were. My thoughts through this was, “Wow, that animal can kill me right now in a matter of .5 seconds” and “I wonder what Rhino tastes like”…horrible thoughts to have I understand this. After Rhinos we continued our drive to Murchison Falls where we got in late and just had dinner, relaxed, and went to sleep. On Saturday, we left our camp at 6:30 a.m. in order to make it to the ferry (cross the Nile) and go on a game drive throughout the park. We saw, may I emphasize, wild giraffes, elephants, warthogs, and buffalos, tons of different kinds of antelope, hippos, exotic African birds, baboons, and my favorite a freaking lion! It is rare to see a lion, so when we did we were overwhelmed with excitement. The lion came straight for our car and stopped like 10 ft and started drinking, this entire time it was staring straight at us. Needless to say, we got some pretty good photo coverage and we made all the other safari adventurers jealous. That evening we went for a boat ride up to Murchison Falls where we saw a ton more hippos and a few crocodiles. They let us out, and we proceeded to hike up the gorgeous falls. The view on top of the falls was indescribably beautiful and it felt like I was literally on top of the world. We went back to the camp where we went out for sodas (haha) with our new Irish and British friends. Sunday, our final day on our safari, we trekked chimpanzees on foot through the jungle. The chimps were all above our heads in the trees eating some nasty fruit (yes I tried it) and throwing the seeds down at us. Luckily, we all made it out alive without any injuries to the head. My favorite part was when they would call to each other and practically shake the jungle with their calls. Overall, my safari experience was well worth it. I made good friends and saw a lot, I am glad I was able to get the opportunity to experience such an extraordinary part of Uganda.

#2 event to be announced for this week is my phone being slashed from my backpack during Tuesday market day in Mukono. Remember in my last blog how cocky I was about catching a guy pick-pocketing me, yeah well my arrogance got to me leaving me without a cell phone. Thanks to all those who sent nasty text messages to the phone, I am pretty sure that person is feeling guilty for his poor choice of stealing from this Mzungu.

#3 event to be made is my Grow, Learn, Give project reaching its first school this last week. Thanks to all the hard work from the Rotaract Clubs we were able to give out 15 feminine hygiene kits to orphans and educate about 300 students on what puberty is and the importance of making good decisions during the time of adolescence. Three Rotaract members who are boys taught a lesson to the boys of the school about the importance of supporting and encouraging girls and desensitizing them on this topic. Overall, it was a success and I was so pleased by my young partners who have become more like friends throughout this process.

#4, throughout the past events of this week all my team members deserted me leaving me only with my country directors, Ryan and Angie, who are great don’t get me wrong, but it is just not the same living with 20 people to only 3. I am now suffering from abandonment; I find myself wondering around the house looking for my friends. My only way to explain it is that it feels like I was just broken up with. You know that sad, pathetic, lonely, and abandoned feeling.  I now know what it feels like to be an only child; the other night I played dominoes by myself. Okay, it really isn’t that bad but there is a sad feeling lingering in the house. I am pleased to announce, besides Ryan and Angie who have to be here…I am the sole survivor of the Uganda Mukono HELP team. Woot! I get the award for being the last one standing and truly the best trooper for making it the longest. Ps. I have dubbed myself that title so know one else knows...shh.

Exciting event #5 is my food adventure aka my threesome date with Oscar and Rob. On their last day here, we wanted to be food extraordinaires and go out with a bang. We accomplished this by going to a nice restaurant and ordered…are you ready…crocodile, ostrich, springbok, impala, and kudu (the last three are different types of antelope)!!!! Cool huh, are you jealous? Haha, the ostrich was my favorite especially in the hamburger form and the crocodile was my least favorite, it had hardly any taste except for a dirty fish aftertaste.

#6 is a very exciting announcement to be made. Some of you may know our goat Aberforth Wilberforce has been carrying a fetus for the majority of the summer. We are pleased to announce the birth of our newest goat and friend, Icarus Fetus. Icarus has already warmed up to me by peeing on me and Aberforth is suffering from post-partum depression. Coming from a person whose hatred for animals flows fairly strong in her blood, I will admit Icarus Fetus, Icky for short, is surely the cutest goat in all of East Africa. Good job Aberforth, you produced well!

#7, the last but certainly one of my very favorite announcements to be made is Trashman. Trashman was a man in Mukono who’s had way too much Opium (literally), wears trash, and would come up to many of the girls and have a stiff encounter with them usually ending with a slap in the face or a water bottle to the head. During the last stumble upon with Trashman he hit poor Jen in the face knocking her glasses off; this did not fly well with the heroic Ryan so he tied Trashman to a tree and had him sent to a mental asylum. **GOOD NEWS ALERT**
“Trashman’s in the kitchen cookin’ chapatti,

I love chapatti, yum yum yum!”

I am pleased to announce that the infamous Trashman has made it out of the mental asylum and is currently back on the streets of Mukono running a chapatti stand. He has no recollection of his past nor hitting any of our team members. I am just glad to know we have yet another chapatti stand in Mukono, because that is certainly what we need another one of…(sarcasm).

I suppose another announcement to be made is that I have less than a week left until I make my trek back to America. I love it here, but I am also excited to be getting back soon. I leave August 25th and land in Boise on the 26th. It has amazed me how fast 4 months breezes by. I can truly say now, I will see you all very soon. Once again, thanks for being a part of this adventure with me.

Love,
Marsupial Megan