Injuries & Lockdown

I feel like I need to start with an apology.

I am sorry that I have been missing, there has been a LOT going on...so here is my attempt to catch you up completely on the last few months.

May 19th, we worked at the farm all day building the troll ace for the cucumbers to grow up. On the way home Josh decided to let me learn to drive his motorcycle. It’s a massive 200cc bike. It’s heavy and a FUN ride. I did so well at the beginning. Then when I needed to make a sharp turn I hit some sand and lost the handle of the bike and laid it down. The bike was fine. I however, I fell slightly forward which caused my leg my leg - as I was wearing shorts (life long mistake) - to touch the front exhaust pipe. Not the big part where the exhaust come out but the pipe that is attached to the engine in front. I didn't feel anything. By the time Josh got to me I realized I hurt myself. He drove me home and I had my housemate apply burn cream to my leg. That sucked but I figured, “meh, a burn, burn cream and I will be fine.”

I was not fine. I burnt about 1/4 of my left calf. After a couple days a scab began to develop and my leg became completely immobile. Any movement made the scab break open and puss and blood would start pouring down my leg. The way the leg burnt, and subsequently scabbed, made it so I could not extend my leg fully nor could I bend it. This is what lead to me not updating people n what was going on completely. I was stuck in bed for what ended up being two months. Ashleigh (housemate) and Josh completely took care of me. From helping me bathe, to cooking for me, caring for Robinson, wiping my tears, cleaning my room, purchasing groceries and literally everything else in between. Ashleigh returned to the States after 5 weeks of my burn. Josh was so sweet when he became the only one there to help me. He moved into our house for a time. I couldn’t. Get out of bed to go to the bathroom without help. My room has two beds and he slept on the little twin to make sure he was there if I needed him. Any time I moved while sleeping it caused pain. I would groan or start crying and he would immediately wake up and came to tend to my leg. As much as I hated the pain and the turmoil it caused t honestly helped our relationship a lot.

Without Josh I would not have mentally made it through that time. I was so pleased and excited that I was able to go to Ashleigh’s going away dinner. I missed being able to fraternize with my friends and co workers. Mentally this was more difficult than the physical healing. I struggled to understand why I was here when I wasn’t able to contribute or participate at all. However Ashleigh parted ways with us as an org and that meant that someone had to take over the communications and social media aspects of the organization. I was able to work again, I was able to participate with my other volunteers. I was able to be connected to our projects, our crew and our supporters. It actually meant a lot to me to feel valued again. To feel a sense of purpose here in Uganda.

Now at this same time frame my phone broke and the keyboard to my iPad stopped working and doing a long update like this began to feel oppressive. Every time I try to type on the iPad with the built in keyboard you realize you have about an inch and a half of workspace to see the screen. So now that i have had my laptop for a whole 24 hours I thought it was time to make an update for everyone, and yes, I LOVE having a full screen and full keyboard again. Shout-outs to Brenda and Jason for being willing to take it back with them when they came back from to Oregon this week.

I attempted to get my phone fixed but it wasn't fully successful, I have insurance on the iPad keyboard case so hopefully that can get fixed whenever i make it back to the states lol

In the good news department I have gotten back up on the bodaboda, just at a lower weight and lower cc. I have done a decent amount of hours of driving now, and still got a good fall in there one time lol my legs have had a rough year haha

I am going to be making a few posts on other specific things that have gone on like the garden bed project, some construction projects and some other wonderful news of things that are going on here and in my life.

This has been a rough year for many reasons, but there have been many many good moments.

Yesterday was a GREAT day. We got to go to church for the first time in about 18 weeks. I burnt my leg and then the lockdown happened soon after. Some of the travel restrictions have been lifted so while there was no passenger car, bus or taxi driving permitted, we are now allowed passengers in cars, single riding bodaboda passengers unless its your child, and taxis at full capacity if everyone wears masks...sit in a taxi and you'll contract pretty much every disease possible they need more than masks for those haha

We still have a curfew, 6 pm for stores and 7 pm for driving. however you can still be out and about walking until 9. Churches opened again finally Sept 26th leaving just the entertainment field such as movie theatres, bars, clubs, event spaces etc to open. There are however many event spaces that have never shut down the entire time...those locations are owned or partially owned by the president of Uganda lol so he can't close his cash cows, they are OBVIOUSLY allowed to stay open. Some of them even allow hookah smoking which he outlawed in the country a couple hears ago. Got to love a double standard of dictator leaders. He has been president for 35 years, yet 70% of the population in Uganda is 24 or under, with 48.47% of the population being 0-14 yrs old. Life expectancy in Uganda is 58.5 years, broken down by gender 60.5 for women and 56.7 for men, Museveni however is 76 years old. lots of fun statistics.....

SO now lockdown is pretty well "over" with curfew not looking to be lifted any time soon, and schools most likely not opening til some time in 2022 meaning that the children in P1-4 have not been to school in two years and all the kids who were able to make it to school when they started to open at the beginning of 2021 and didn't get to finish will have to completely restart their whole year, and they don't get their school fees back. so most likely kids that were in grades P1-P4 wont return to school, ever. they have lost so much time that the amount it takes to re pay for school can cause families to drown in bills. It was already very normal to have kids aged 6-11 in P1 because that was when they were able to pay for school fees. The kids have suffered the most, especially the ones that are boarded here for school, they came in May when schools were about to open in a few days and then after the first week of school the 49 day lock down started. It was a 42 day lockdown that was restarted a week after it started and then lasted for 56 days before travel was allowed.

It was just Joel and I here for about a month while Marissa went with their daughter Juniper then a week later Jason and Brenda went back to Oregon for a visit. We had a lot of times to hang out and talk and get to know each other better. It was good for us, and it was good for Brenda and Jason to know that they had two people here the whole time taking care of the gardens and construction projects. It was good to get things done and accomplish things.

So that is my general update for the past few months, and there will be many more detailed ones to come soon. I have truly been enjoying my role but I have definitely been more busy than I really thought that I would be - haha - being a mom and cooking every meal from scratch (cause that's life here), washing dishes by hand 3-4x a day, monitoring the garden, social media, communication, purchasing and I know I am forgetting a few things but the point is I'm silly busy and have no idea how Brenda and Jason did all of this without help, I am so honored that I get to help them with the heavy loads that they have.

NOTE: Some of the photos might be graphic...but its of my leg so I'm showing you what happened and how far in the healing process I have reached.