First Boda Experience

May 26th

First BODA experience

This morning, we woke up yet again to the moo of the neighbor's cow, the cockle of the roosters, and the laughter of school children walking to school. We had our typical breakfast of hard boil eggs, bread, and jelly and then we were off. Not kidding you, off on our first boda ride. And as you non-Ugandian may not know, a boda is a motorcycle that they use simply as a taxi service. As an ER nurse and a daughter of an orthopedic spine surgeon, I swore on my life to never ride on the back of a motorcycle and that was in the States where there are rules. Rules like: you stay on that side of the road and Ill stay on mine, the right of way to other cars or pedestrians, or how about a speed limit. Such rules in Uganda do not exist. But that day has come and gone… and now we are women. It was quite the experience and a bumpy ride. Holding on for dear life and weaving in and out of traffic, we made our 30min trek up the mountains and through the swampy streets of Bududa to our first teaching site. We were asked to teach P1-P3s (age 7-10) basic sex ed and appropriate manners in public. We then broke into groups of boys and girls for the older kids, P3-P7 (age 11-16) to go more in depth on the reproductive system, puberty changes and basic hormones, pregnancy, and STDs. The kids looked at us like we were aliens and we were not sure if it was for the pure fact that we were Mazongas (white person/alien in Ugandian), just for the slight language barrier, or that they barely knew what the word "sex" was or where babies came from. This may come to you as a shock but this is unnavigated territory in this culture and most of the children did not even have a basic understanding of this. We had a question box for anonymous questions, which taught us all a lot on what to focus on more in our future endeavors. It was a huge learning experience for both us and the children, not to mention a complete blast. We spent all morning up there, hanging out with the kids and taking pictures of them, with them. Every single one of them wanted to see themselves on our digital camera screen after… like it was some crazy phenomena. Then the P1s started singing and dancing for us (videos will be uploaded on Facebook this weekend). They are sooo adorable and we loved every second of it. Boda trip #2 took us back to the clinic to finish out another day of planning and working on teaching plans for what may come next. On our way back from the clinic, we walked with a group of boys from Arlington School (school associated with  FIMRC) laughing and messing around with them the whole way home. 

We are having a blast and really enjoying our time here. Almost completely our first week here, we are still in complete shock of all the blank stares that we get;  going on runs through town, walking back from the clinic, every encounter with the towns people. Kristen made a good (not to be cocky) analogy that it is like the Royal Wedding and we are just the parade of the royal family walking through town. I mean I stopped what i was doing to watch the Royal Wedding and they do about the same. They stop what they are doing, stare, some children wave and ask "How are youuuu?" but most just stare until we greet them with a smile or Malembai aka Hello in Ugandian. I went for a run today and the children chased me for a good 1/2 mile, then proceeded to make an obstacle courses for me to run through and jump over. They were quite impressed with my hurdling skills, i must say. It is still pretty entertaining but it is only the first week. 

We are missing and praying for everyone back in the States and still appreciate every prayer and thought for our safe journeys. Thank you and We love you.

The Ugandan people are so resourceful, look at the things you can accomplish when you recycle!