It's only been a week, but a lot has happened since the last time I wrote. For the sake of not turning you all away from reading my blog, I think I'm just going to brief you on some of the highlights.

Girlfriends: Ok, so I know that I came here in part for a unique experience that would force me outside of my comfort zone and I have definitely found that, but I have also been lucky enough to make a couple of friends that make me forget where I am. My running buddy, Eva, and Caro (Caroline) have essentially taken on roles as my key go-to companions when all I really need is a good chatting outlet. Eva and I run twice a week and she does me the favor of translating what men are saying as I go by. This way, I know who to wave at and who to ignore completely. Having the motivation of knowing I will have someone to talk to and joke around with has increased my average run from half an hour to 45 minutes and I am hoping to be running an hour at a time starting next week. The running is fantastic, but, even more important, is my friendship with Caro. We stayed up so late a couple of times this week that Edward came looking for me to make sure that I hadn't gotten lost somewhere. Not to say that any single one of my girlfriends at home is even remotely replaceable (because none of you are), but it has been comforting to have someone that serves all of the same purposes here. Caro knows just about everything about my personal life and has really opened up to share with me. She is impressively strong and motivated, despite everything that has happened in her life and talking with her, hearing her views on everything from dresses for Martha (her daughter) to feminism is truly a blessing. She undoubtedly has one of the strongest wills I have ever encountered and she has made me reconsider much of what was once important to me and begin to focus more on what I will do with my life. Leaving her behind will be the hardest part of going home.

Saturday Rugby Game: A group of the volunteers went into Kampala to hang out for the weekend and watch a Uganda vs. Tunisia rugby game. Uganda didn't do too well, which was a little bit disappointing, but it was still definitely worth the experience. With all of the running I've been doing lately, I've been thinking it would be nice to get into a sport when I return to the states. I think I might have found my new passion in rugby. I think I could definitely get into a game where you tackle people to the ground with no padding and very few rules limiting brutality. I know most of you are probably thinking that I could never make it in rugby, probably due to the fact that you probably envision my wearing pigtails and twirling around in circles of excitement when you think of me. However, I have recently been missing my Taekwondo "glory days" and I'm really looking for a sport to repeat them with.

Girls vs. Boys: In an effort to increase class participation in my lessons, I have initiated girls (Arsenal) vs. boys (Manchester United) competitions in my P4, P5, and P6 classes. The competitions have been phenomenally successful in bringing some of my more timid students to the board and have given me confidence that they actually do understand what I am teaching them. On the other hand, I think that I am going to have to start moving my classes to a new location if I want to continue the games. Some of the other teachers have scolded them for disrupting other classes while they are cheering and clapping for their teammates. Granted, I find the scolding somewhat unwarranted due to the fact that most of my colleagues require their students to repeat everything they say, which means that other classes are consistently so loud that I cannot be heard over 20-30 voices obediently reciting every bit of information in their lesson in the next room.
I don't want to get my students in trouble though. Trouble here means discipline by the stick, a sight I really can't bear to watch at lunchtime, but find myself frequently exposed to. I'm trying to help end the cycle by discouraging students from hitting each other in my own classes...without hitting them myself. This has proven to be a somewhat difficult task. On Tuesday, a few of my girls in P1 were fighting over seats. They stopped after I asked them to, but my students found it so strange that I didn't hit them that one of my boys came forward with a stick and offered to discipline them for me. I snapped the stick into pieces and made them all sit in silence for 5 minutes before I continued my lesson. I wish I could communicate the reasons I don't hit students to them, but the language barrier between me and my younger students is too big to be able to have that kind of conversation with them. I don't want it to seem like my placement doesn't treat children well, the beating aren't even really enough to leave welts most of the time. It has just proven very hard for me to overcome cultural differences in child rearing. Comparatively, my students are living the good life just by going to school. I have no complaints about that.

District Tournaments: Starting yesterday, my school began competing in district sports tournaments in netball (Ugandan basketball) and football (soccer). Yesterday, our girls owned the courts in netball and this morning, our boys' football team won 3-0. It has been a lot of fun walking all over the area to go to different games with my students. Not only have I been able to see more of the surrounding country, but I have also been able to experience sports culture in Uganda. The games have much of the same feel as an American game, but they are more casual. There are no stands or arenas, just makeshift "nets" and goals on long dirt fields. The players' classmates sit on the sides of the field and occasionally poke fun of their friends on the field until they make a goal, at which point they all erupt into scream of joy, literally falling over with happiness...sometimes for so long that another goal has been scored before they stop cheering. I think going to football games is driven more by the desire to make noise than it is by an actual interest in the game.

Saving Lives: I went to do counseling of HIV positive community members with Jimmy on Tuesday. Being exposed to conditions of extreme poverty and knowing that the people you are talking to have come to terms with their death is hardly what I would call uplifting. We visited 11 houses and I was both physically and emotionally exhausted. However, one man made the trip worth it. He told me that, without CODEAPS, he would not be alive today. Maybe there is something to be said for the work we're doing, even if the benefits aren't always as obvious as one would like.

Less Uplifting News: I woke up this morning with a cold. I was in the process of feeling cranky and sorry for myself, when I got to school and found out that Michael, a student of mine in P2, has mosquito malaria. He has been throwing up, has a really high fever, and can barely move on his own. He has been taken to a clinic so there isn't much I can do right now except hope that he will be ok. I'm mostly just writing about this so I will have the sense of solidarity of knowing that there are others out there hoping with me. Malaria can be fatal if it's not treated early enough and Michael is only a little boy so battling the disease will not be easy. I am confident that he was taken to a clinic in time, but I still don't want to dismiss it at that.