First of all, working with Zoe was going fine, but they found a replacement so after 3 weeks I passed off my job to a wonderful new lady. So I had 3 full weeks of busyness, school and stress.... and now I have had a full week off.
Which leads me to my next thing. Today I had my first Luganda lessons! I will be doing 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for 3 weeks. I could use your prayers. Languages are not my strong point and I have heard (and today, experienced) that Luganda is hard to learn. However, God has called me here and I would really like to know the language so I am going to do this. I am so excited and terrified all at the same time. My tutor is great! We spent some time today, just talking and getting to know each other, but we also got a lot of studying in. I took a lot of notes and also got video of her speaking.... So, in addition to 3 hours of classes each day, I will be spending some of my evening studying and practicing pronunciation and vocab words. PLEASE BE PRAYING FOR ME!Just some more personal information:
I have been going to a bible study that I have really enjoyed. Every week everyone shows up with a dish of some sort, we all eat together then sit down to study the word (it is a very fun and diverse group there are Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders, Australians, Ugandans) . I have also started going to a new church (the other church was good, just too big for my taste). This church is the kind of church I am more used to... small, simple, more of a community than a mega church.
My apartment is great (by no means perfect, but who's first apartment is supposed to be perfect?) the biggest problem... the power, but that's just Uganda. To give you a taste, lets just say that I went almost 1 whole week with no power outages and that was just a huge surprise! Luckily, when the power does go out, I have multiple people near me that are ether on different power sources or have generators. They have (very generously) allowed me to go to their house, charge my computer and mooch off of them when I am unable to do stuff at my place.
I am also trying to get involved in some different ministries... few weeks ago, I was part of a jigger clinic.
To start off, just getting to this ministry where the clinic was being held was an amazing, beautiful adventure! 5 minute walk, 5 minute boda (motorcycle) ride, 20 minute matatu (taxi/van) ride, about a 30 minute boat ride across the lake, about a 20 minute boda ride on village, dirt roads.... it was amazing! Sadly, I have no pictures, but I am hoping to visit the ministry again in about 2 weeks and I will be sure to get pictures and video then.
Okay, now.... For anyone who does not know what jiggers are, here is a short science lesson. Jiggers are small, parasitic sand fleas. "When the female is ready to lay eggs, it will bury itself, head first into the host (human or animal). For humans, the jigger usually looks for soft exposed skin like the areas between the fingers and toes. The jigger will stay under the skin sucking blood from the host until the eggs are fully developed. In about two weeks, the eggs will have fully developed and when ready, they will be dropped out in the same hole that the female flea entered. The female lays about 100-200 eggs at one cycle. The eggs will hatch after a few days and go through the larvae and pupal stages in about 2 to 3 weeks, to become adults. The adults, still burrowed in the human flesh, will mate and the cycle will begin again. Therefore, while a single female jigger may burrow itself in a person initially, the person can end up with hundreds of jiggers within a few weeks, even if no more jiggers from outside enter his or her legs." I have been told that the in initial burrowing is not very painful, but once they are in there, swelling occurs, they are moving around, laying eggs.... it can get pretty painful. If, for some reason, you want to know more about the lovely jigger.... http://www.killthejigger.org/what-are-jiggers/
Here in Uganda, jiggers are a big problem (much more so in the villages). So, there is a ministry that once a month holds a jigger clinic. They get people to volunteer, head out to their place and help remove the jiggers and egg sacks. Some people wash feet and others dig (and if they have enough people, sometimes they paint the girls' toenails). So, eager to learn new things, I bravely decided to try my hand at digging. Basically, I sit down and start looking. After a minute I don't see any jiggers (and after someone who knew better what to look for confirmed it) that girl left and the next was brought to me. This girl clearly had some, so as the lady is instructing me, she finds an egg sac under the girls toe nail. She starts digging, the little girl is squirming (but other than the numbing spray that was already applied, there is nothing more to do but suffer through the pain, and get it over with), blood and puss is seeping, I start getting dizzy. I decided to step out side for a few minutes, the moment I step back in, it all hits me again.... I almost pass out, so I call it quits. I stayed outside for the rest of the time, playing with kids. I will try again. I am living here and it is a very common problem with those in the village, so my plan is to be able to do that work.... it just might take some time before my stomach and head can deal with it.
So, that is my lovely adventure from a few weeks ago. Hopefully, before too, terribly long, I will be able to share a story of me successfully removing jiggers, but until then I will continue just having fun playing with the kids :)
