Kibito

(which Aloke informs me should be correctly pronounced in Luganda as *Ch*ibito, but i maintain that the Mtorros who live there call it *K*ibito, so that's the way i'm going to say it too!)
I went up to visit Mum Akiki in Kibito (near Fort Portal, which apparently I also pronounce funny!) this last week. She was so thrilled by all the pictures in the album that Janalee had made for her and she just gave me the biggest hug and couldn't stop asking me when I was coming back to stay with her cause she gets so lonely living by herself. I also got to deliver 3/4 of my suitcase to her full of medical supplies for the clinic.
I really ought to pray more for the clinic and Akiki. Poor lady, she was doing fairly well with her small practice, but a doctor finally came to work at the district hospital that is not far from her clinic and apparently there is some organization that pays the sisters there for their services, so delivery there is next to free. Of course Akiki can't afford to provide her midwife services free of charge, so she said that prior to my coming she hadn't had a patient for the whole month. However 3 babies were born at the clinic while I was there. One baby girl, and twin boys, and she also had to send another patient away to the hospital because of pelvic disproportion.
Other than the clinic however our stay in Kibito was stellar. Of course these things of limited power, no running water, cooking over a wood fire, and nightly trips to the outhouse out back are all sorts of fun.

But some of my favorite moments were:
1. Laughing with Akiki. You know how you can tell when some people have been stressed and they just need to smile and laugh more. I love it when I get to hang out with those people and be the person that reminds them of the joy in life.
2. Skeevia. (I actually have no idea how to spell her name), but she is one of the neighbor girls that stays with Akiki and helps out with Keisha (Akiki's granddaughter) and keeps Akiki company. She immediately decided that we needed to be fast friends and though she kinda delighted in laughing at my sad attempts to help in the kitchen or do things the African way, I think she also had fun showing off her new friend when we went to town for airtime and bread or to the market day to get "Irish" and pineapples. That girl was a pure delight to me, and unlike Akiki, didn't mind letting me help out with chores or teaching me how to hand squeeze juice! (yeah, I did that! and it was A-Mazing!)
3. 5,000 Ugandan shillings. That is what Aloke bet me that he could beat me at the Word Mole game on my blackberry. (don't ask me why I have a blackberry in Africa) See I kinda might have insulted his english skills... something about English being my first language and his second, so of course I was better at word games than him... yeah, I know. I'm mean. What can I say. But I was also right. And he can keep blaming it on the cold, but we both know that wasn't the problem with his lack of spelling quickness. Speaking of word games... we also demolished a couple of crossword puzzles on the way to Kibito and back. It seems with our combined skills we are actually fairly good, however miserable we are independently.
4. New friends. Nancy, Akiki's daughter, came to visit with two friends from the U.K. who have been working on a research project at the national park where she works. It was fun to interact with other "mzungus" with their adorable english accents and interesting ideas of what is normal and not in UG.
5. The mountains. I don't think I will ever get over how beautiful the mountains are. Whether they are shrouded in veils of smoke and fog or dominating the skyline with their presence, they are truly one of the things that makes my heart feel very close to God. My personal game is to count how many horizons i can see... So starting with the nearest mountain you can see you count the layers of mountain ranges as far back as you can see. I think our record was 9.

Well, that's 5, that's enough for today right?
Okay, okay, so I'll tell one more story before I sign off for the day. Kia, Belinda, and I went for Indian food last night (which wasn't half bad actually, though its slightly oxymoronic to eat Indian food in Africa... but whatever.) So we were on our way home and just walking through dark Kampala streets because we decided we were too full to jump in the taxi and needed to walk some of our food off, plus we wanted to get ice cream yet at Nando's. So we are walking along Kampala road just laughing and talking. Normally anywhere you go in Kampala if you are looking for the trashcan just look down, cause you are most likely walking on it. Needless to say littering is a big problem. But along Kampala road there are strategically placed cans with signs that say "Keep our city clean" and slogans of that sort. I didn't really realize what he was doing until we were pretty near him, but there was this guy leaning over one of the cans. Both of the other girls kinda shied away, but I wasn't really passing near him, so I just kept watching. Good thing I have good peripheral vision cause this guy was slightly insane (and I mean mentally unstable, not silly) and lunged towards us waving some food particle he was apparently redeeming from the garbage can. He lifted his hand to chuck it at us, seeing how we had shied away, I think he thought he would have some fun with us. I neatly sidestepped and sped up, but the girls were way ahead of me and yelled at me to start running. I think we ran a whole block from this guy who only took a couple lunges towards us and then just laughed hysterically at our disappearing figures. Funny thing though, I think I passed both of the girls and I was running in flip-flops! Can you imagine? Statistically a large majority of the mentally ill in Africa go untreated because there just aren't facilities or federal aid and families simply can't take care of them like they need when they themselves are struggling to stay above the poverty line. Anyway, we escaped from this crazy guy, but I think next time we'll just take the taxi after dark and forgo whatever adventures we might have with the mentally unstable of Kampala night life!