Fish Taxis. Eye Camp. G-nut.

This is probably my last post from Africa. Maybe not, but probably. I’m out of time!

Eye Camp starts on Monday. It’s going to last for eight days; three at Naggalama, two at Nkokonjeru, and three at Kawolo Hospital here in Lugazi. We’ve got eye surgeons coming from Kampala and Jinja for seven of the eight days, and the screening staff from Kawolo is coming to each hospital with us. We have supplies and staff for as many cataract surgeries as we find candidates for, which is spectacular considering all the struggles we’ve had with our lack of funding. Our buddies at Sightsavers came through at the last minute; previously we thought we’d only be able to do 100 surgeries. We’re counting on about 200, now. I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve been one of two people who have been working on coordinating this thing from the beginning. I’ve put in a lot of time and effort to make all of this work, so seeing it come to fruition is just incredible. I’ve been to Kampala twice and Nkokonjeru once in just this last week, and neither of those places is a small distance away. I’ve spent somewhere around 13 hours on a taxi in just the last four days, which doesn’t seem so bad unless you understand what taxis are like here. Paint yourself a mental image: more than 20 people crammed in a smelly van licensed and built to carry no more than 14, typically stuffed with nice little extras like huge sacks of reeking fish or live chickens running around on the floor or thousands of ants creeping all over you. Throw in some unjustified yelling, loud fare bartering, and people randomly handing you their screaming babies, and you’ve got it. It’s great fun. Anyway, Eye Camp is going to be incredible, but we have a hell of a lot of work to do to get it done. Two days to prepare. Ugh.

Uh… what else has been happening? I don’t know. I think I’m getting too used to things here. Nothing seems odd to me anymore, though I’m sure if I stepped back and looked at the things that happen I would realize how unusual they really are. I’ll never freak out about bugs again, I can say that much. I’m more tolerant of finding weird things in my food than I probably ought to be. Dead things don’t phase me much anymore, and I can ignore any smell, regardless of how nasty it is. I’m far too comfortable around goats, chickens, and geckos. I’ll eat anything you serve me, in any quantity. Even tiny uncooked fish mixed into my g-nut sauce. G-nut tastes like salty peanut butter sauce, just so you know… imagine it, if you please. Mmmm. (That’s sarcasm. G-nut and silverfish will NEVER be an okay combo.)

Don’t let me drive when I get back. I can’t even imagine what this place has done to my idea of “safe driving”.

You know, I think I will post again before I leave Africa. This is a pathetic blog post. I need to end things with a well-written and interesting one, not a lame story about taxis and the gross stuff I don’t care about anymore. I’m lame.

I seriously can’t think of anything else to write about. I will make the next one less stupid, I promise. Later, everyone!