Live your love.

Thought I would share some interesting cultural things that I have been experiencing while here in Uganda: 1. I am often the only white person when I ride the Mutatoo (taxi bus) to the village during the week, and that usually means that I am being stared at like an alien... and hearing "Muzungo (white foreigner)" amongst the others in their native language. 2. Taxi buses try and fit as many people in them as possible. There is a sign that says licensed to carry 14 passengers, and i would say there is an average of 21 people, 2 chickens, 10 pineapples, 2 babies, and 3 bags of rice in them. 3. Ugandans don't seem to have the personal space issue that American do.. this shows even in their driving, sitting, walking, talking.. because we get VERY close to most things moving and unmoving. 4. In their culture women's thighs are seen as something very sexual, and the breasts are seen as something maternal. It is not unusual to see women breast feeding out in the open, but i...

It's hard to believe I've been here almost 2 weeks! I'm very glad that I am here for longer because I feel like I'm just starting to get used to the culture, learning my way around, and getting used to heat and schedule. I'm learning a little Luganda too. They do teach English in school here, so educated people know English, but it can still be very difficult to understand each other due to the dialect. I've been spending my weekdays taking the taxibus to the village where our office is. Then I go with a different guy from the Spring of Hope team every day on home visits to different children with disabilities. There we spend time educating their family on positioning, exercises, and building adaptive equipment for them. I also have seen some kids at the Spring of Hope office for appointments. They have a small therapy room with a mat, standing frame, wedge, and some toys. I have been writing about specific stories of children I've worked with on the Spring ...

Just wanted to send a quick update about my trip thus far. I arrived in Uganda on Wedneday Morning (Tuesday night in America). The journey was safe and quite easy. My body was a bit jet lagged on Wednesday, but I have since recovered! For those of you who don't know I am volunteering with an NGO for the next 5 weeks that serves children with disabilities in rural villages in Uganda as an occupational therapist. Here is the website if you are interested: http://www.springofhope.org.uk/ . I took it easy on Wednesday, and began working on Thursday. I took a "boda boda" which a is a motor bike taxi into town, and then got on a taxibus to go to the village where the Spring of Hope office is. I worked with a Ugandan occupational therapist all day on Thursday. SOOO INTERESTING. I can't believe how different our jobs can be just due to the cultural differences. We saw several kids in the clinic there. One had quite severe Cerebral Palsy and the other had hydrocephalus (water ...