Uganda Day 46
To Mop.
Part of Speech: Verb.
Ok so picture in your head what you may. A mop, a bucket, soapy water, and a cleanly swept floor. Now, erase that picture from your mind completely. Tuesday at Salama, us girls got to mop the floor. However, such mopping did not even involve a mop. The dining room is a fairly decent sized room with four heavy wooden tables. And frankly, I think they wait for Tuesdays to mop or sweep or anything cuz they know we will be all too willing to help them out with that. Its quite a disaster zone after lunch. Posho and rice litter the floor, but when we mopped, Tuesday there was no sweeping that happened first. We started with clean water (and that was the last time it ever looked clean) and rags and after soaking them in water proceeded to get the floor as wet as possible. With the five of us girls and the 'house mother' of the school we managed to get the floor pretty muddy looking. Since we hadnt swept all the dirt that had accumulated became sort of s sludge on the cement floor. Oh curse my American efficiency. Then came the fun part...you wring out your, already dirty rag, in the dirty water and go to a far corner put your rag down and drag. It picks up the water and sludge. However, when getting back to the area after rinsing your rag you tend to track mud back into the clean area. Basically, it is a laborious, back bending, and never ending task. But hey, I'm pretty legit now. It was pretty fun to laugh at how inferior we were at such a task, and how ridiculous we must look with our rears in the air kinda sashaying around the room backwards. We have also started a list of 'skills' (in the loosest sense of the term) that we have acquired here that will be totally pointless when we get home. The list includes things like:
- Cracking Maize
- Handwashing Laundry
- Peeling Matoke
And now we add
- Mopping (or perhaps ragging?)
This weekend is a crazy one. Saturday the Uganda Cranes football team plays Kenya in an African Qualifier game. Its a big deal. Yesterday, there was a massive line outside the supermarket at 9:30 in the morning for tickets. And then Sunday, the ninth is Uganda's 49th anniversary for independence. However, I shall miss out on most of the festivities as I will be travelling with my practicum class to the region of Luwero. This area is extremely poor and was the location where the current president, Museveni, started his revolt in the 80's. He started with 26 other people. Anyways, this area lost much of its cattle and approximately 500,000 lives. There has been little bounce back in the area, but every year a stipend is set aside to help the Luwero district come around. We shall get to visit a compassion site and see the other side of the giving. That should be awesome! The Luwero district has a very high HIV/AIDs percentage, though no one is quite sure what it is, in comparison to the rest of Uganda. And....that freaks me out a bit, kinda a lot. So prayers for peace would be appreciated. And Sunday, we will be heading through Kampala which if the Cranes win shall prove to be quite mad. So please pray for safe travels and just general safety I guess.
Have a beautiful Friday everyone!
The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you."
ReplyDeleteIsaiah 35:1-4