Day 11: Strolling in Mbarara

View from Guest House

June 18: We (the expats) started off the day with an early morning run through the dirt roads. Kids on their way to school and adults on their way to work greeted us as we ran down the streets; however, the boda bodas were not so kind and kept honking at us, even though there was plenty of room on the road to share. When we arrived back at the guest house, Natalie and I had a "stretch session," looking out over the hills of Mbarara as the sun rose.

Daniel Kolenda, the Evangelist

      After a breakfast of eggs, mango, and passionfruit, Natalie and I walked over to the malnutrition ward. As we were heading over, we passed a huge field that was filled with men who were setting up a stadium-esque structure for an evangelist who is coming tomorrow. The "Christian Crusade" is drawing people from all over East Africa to this field that is a quarter mile from the guest house. There are posters of the speaker posted all around town, and from the looks of it, thousands of people show up to the event. We might escape to a quiet lodge on Saturday, after the Color Run takes place, for there will be massive amounts of people crowded close to the MGH Guest House.
      The cancer clinic was closed today, so we went to the Nutrition section of the hospital. The malnutrition ward was quiet today, and a lot of the children were having their morning nap. We went into the play room and drew and threw the ball with a couple of the kids; however, most of the children today were babies. We learned that upon the arrival of infant and toddler patients, most patients can not sit up by themselves, so it takes a lot of energy for them to come into the playroom, let alone pick up a ball. There was a five year-old boy whom we taught numbers one through ten and part of the alphabet. This "mini-lesson" gave Natalie and I the idea to make a giant poster with the alphabet and numbers (this will now be our night-time project).
      We walked from the hospital to a restaurant, where we met with a couple adults who work in the psychiatric ward at the hospital. I am going to collaborate with them, so that the cancer center can have a joint affiliation with the psychiatric ward at the hospital. The specialists that we met want to be trained in music and art therapy by a professional, and this is where Julio will help. Julio (professional therapist) is coming next week, and during the lunch we came up with a plan for what we will do while he is here. Ultimately, the specialists will help keep the program running.

Clothing Market

      After lunch we went to the Central Market to buy some vegetables for dinner, and then we headed back to the guest house for an afternoon "siesta." Noortje came by in the late afternoon and took us (Natalie, James, and me) the main Mbararan clothing market, which is basically a handful of tents with second-hand clothing from the U.S. and U.K.. I did not find it hard to restrain myself from searching through the piles of clothes; however, James went crazy in the market when he learned that he could buy soccer jerseys for $1.00. We went on a mission to find the worst work-out clothes possible for the director of the program, David. I think we found some awful looking clothes for David to wear to our next aerobics session: a Spongebob Squarepants hat and a large collared t-shirt with stripes made out of black, see-through mesh.
      For dinner, we quickly whipped up vegetable stir-fry in the kitchen, and after we ate, we had a cookie making/dance party in the kitchen. The only hurdle we ran into was that when we were trying to turn the oven on, we realized that we had to take a candle-lighter and physically light the oven on fire. . .scary. After that little blip, the cooking went smoothly, and the result was delicious cookies!