Bat Man police

Yay! People read this :)

Oh man, I have some really funny stories.

here is my favorite, which I just have to start things off with. I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but I am currently staying with a Ugandan girl named Angella. I met her here when I was on the course. She's a doctor in her late 20's and she's great. So anyway, we went out the other night with some of her friends and her friend Dennis was driving us both home after we had all picked up a late night snack. He made an illegal u-turn and out of nowhere, these two police wearing black capes and carrying huge guns appeared on the side of the road and apparently pulled him over. They said that he made an illegal turn, and Dennis was SO smooth it was hilarious. He said that he was from Mbarara and had just come to Kampala for the night to visit some friends, and he didnt' know, and he's so sorry, and on and on. Of course, this doesn't really make a difference, and the police then proceed to get into the back seat of the car with me. Angella and Dennis were in front, so I was sitting there with two policeman wearing black capes and holding huge guns in their laps. It was pretty surreal. They told Dennis to drive to the police station where they were going to write him a ticket for 80,000 shillings (about $40). Dennis continues to be unbelievably smooth and talk about how he doesn't know the city very well and he's so sorry, and he just doesn't have 80,000 shillings. The policemen were also very smooth and I didn't even realize until afterwards that Dennis was bribing them, to me it seemed like they were bargaining about the price of the ticket.
Basically, if we had done things officially and gone to the station and gotten an official ticket, the money would have gone straight to the government and the policemen wouldn't have seen any of it. Instead, Dennis paid the policemen directly...through his exceptional patience and bargaining skills the price of this bribe went from 60,000 shillings to 20,000. It was very impressive, and the whole thing was SO funny, I had to bite my lip to stop myself from bursting out in laughter, and as soon as they got out of the car we all just died laughing. Dennis lied his ass off the whole time about being from Mbarara and the policemen acted like they were doing him the biggest favor by taking his bribe and not making him pay 80,000 shillings. Everyone was so nice to each other and it was all so corrupt... anyways, it was a pretty great thing to experience.

Other things: the KCCC has been pretty good. They have a campaign right now in secondary schools where they are going all over Kampala and the surrounding area showing videos against cross-generational sex which happens because when students can't afford their school fees they find a sugar mommy or sugar daddy who pays for them in exchange for sex. It's a major cause of HIV/AIDS spread in Uganda right now. The only problem with the KCCC campaign is that it doesn't really provide an alternative option to these kids. It's either no school, or the sugar daddies and mommies. I went to one of the schools with them and helped register the students and stuff. It was really interesting. There were 1,500 students gathered to watch this video. Unfortunately, a lot of them weren't really able to see, but the ones that were really loved the video and were laughing and really engaged the whole time. I wasn't able to see it because there were so many people, but they said they'll give me a copy to take home. I also spent half a day at the mental health clinic which was cool because there were also Ugandan social work and nursing students there visiting for the day the same way that I was and it was nice to be able to talk to them. Afterwards we all had lunch together, and they said that until going to that clinic they didn't know that you could be an educated person and have a mental illness. They said everything they read about mental illness was about poor, uneducated villagers. I asked them about services for people that have mild social problems like anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsiveness, etc. and they said that there's nothing...It was kind of embarassing for me actually, because I think they were almost annoyed at my question. They were just like, "this is Africa. we don't have that kind of stuff."
Every single day a million things remind me how much I have.

I am starting to love it here though, like really love it. This morning I had such a high - it's this feeling that I had all the time in Israel when you're in a place that's foreign but you're comfortable. You know how to get around, you understand what's going on around you, and then when you're alone in that kind of environment but also confident, you just meet SO many people. Everyone talks to you and shows you things and I ended up all over the place today and it was just great. I bought some really cool art from a guy at the KCCC who said he'll show me how he makes it next week! I have learned to have absolutely no expectations about things, but I'm really hoping that that works out because it could be really cool.

oh! I also found out some more information about the islands because Marissa and Kelsi got there yesterday. I wasn't sure what phone and internet access would be like, but turns out, both will be readily available. They sound really excited about things there and so now I'm really excited to go! I have a lot of work to do this week in Kampala with getting things ready for the group to come and finishing up the things I want to do at the KCCC, but I think it will be good. I told Angella about my soup business so this weekend I am going to try to make her lentil soup. We'll see how it goes. OH! But she taught me how to make chapati! It was so exciting!

hm, I feel like I'm babbling a bit. sorry. This may not have been the best post.
I really miss everyone a lot. I am having a really great time but it will be so great to come home, which reminds me - I'm officially half way through! I don't know how I feel about that...I am excited to go home, but it is also a bit nerve racking to think about for some reason.
okay toodles! Thanks again for your comments. I feel a bit out of touch here sometimes, so it's nice to feel connected once in a while.
lots of love,
shelly