finishing up february

Not too much going on here in bujagali. We got a new volunteer in, a guy named matt (from Idaho, went to yale) who will be here for 6 months or so... ive been keeping busy trying to catch up on follow-up data (entering tons of questionaires into the computer ) before jessie gets back from her jaunt to the states. My parents are comming out on monday (wow!) so lots of prep work for that.. i have to say im a little nervous, but super excited to get them out here. We'll do a little paddling, a little saving the world, and a trip up to murchison falls, a massive waterfall and national park up in northern uganda. its supposed to be absolutley beautiful and i can't wait to go up and see it.

On a personal note: i've had a lot of old friends and acquantainces pop back into my life recently. My program director Andre Guy from when i went abroad in Cameroon is currently in Sudan, and i have a catch up date to meet with him here in Uganda in march, which is really exciting. A couple kids (kayakers) from Canada that i have met on various paddling trips have also just showed up at the Lemon- funny what a small world it is. The last time i saw one of these kids was after a great day of boating on the gatineau river (which resulted in a swim by me- and subsequent "bootie beer" which was filmed by john gannon and others) - and i left this kid passed out on our hotel room floor. The Dirty Dozen crew kids should all remember this night, and that trip. great times. Its funny how things seem to catch up with you when you dont expect it.

After reading over my last post, and an email response i got, i realize that a lot of what i said about colonialism, or neo-colonialism came out suprisingly negative, which wasn't really my intention. There are a lot of good things about being here, clearly- as the rest of my blog posts show- but there is something disconcerting about the position in which we live. I tagged along to a rafting trip yesterday to help out a friend, and one of the customers goes.. "oh this is a bit weird, isn't it? these women washing their clothes as we are about to put our rafts in the water"
The volunteers here (and there are a lot of them) often get teased.. "how was savng the world today? " And we joke about a,omgst ourselves to be sure.. saving the world, one net or one condom at a time.. and as much as you poke fun, or as much as you have to wonder how much "good" you are actually doing.. you have to just go with the flow- and take everything as it comes. I wonder a lot what is going to happen to the generation of kids growing up in the village now, the kids who have grown up surrounded by white tourists, the ones who aren't in school, and run around saying.. mzungu i love you! how are you mzungu? what is your name? Mzungu. give me sweetie! Give me t-shirt! - and how their experiance will be different than their parents.
oh well.. off to save the world again.. one properly used condom at a time.

also.. put some new pics on flickr, so check them out.