I Love Electricity!

A traditional Acholi grinding stone and stove.

After living almost four days without electricity, it came back on tonight! Yeah! I was just about out of boiled water and all our electronics needed to be charged; our computers, camera, phones, DVD player, etc. I like my lights on at night. I have had to read by flashlight at night. Good thing we bought these awesome solar flashlights. We also brought a solar operated radio which is pretty cool. We have been doing everything at night by flashlight, and it is not fun. When the lights go off in Gulu, it is the darkest of dark! We are so remote that the night is truly black and you can hardly see your hand in front of your face, but the stars are amazing!

Three little boys in a village we visited.

Every day I meet someone with such a sad story. It’s a wonder I don’t get depressed here, but I think what is happening is that I am realizing my divorce, my broken family, my broken heart, my lost puppies, and my lost home is nothing compared to what most of these people are facing. Yesterday I met someone who just found out she was HIV positive from her husband of 20+ years. He was cheating on her and he brought the sickness to her. Now she will be on medicine for the rest of her life. I cried for and with her. Today at the orphanage they brought me a young girl, 13, who was beaten by her aunt three years ago and she is now blind from that beating. They asked if I can find a sponsor for her school fees. I have a growing list of children that need help getting into schools. People are finding out that I am getting school fees paid by donations and they are coming to me for help. They just keep coming and coming. I don’t know that I will be able to assist them all, and I tell them that, but the donations do keep coming.

My good friend Rotarian Dr. Ben Abe

This morning I went to four different banks to pay the school fees of four different students. It was a great day. Agnes, 23, the one kidnapped by the rebels at the age of 14, and married to a rebel soldier at this young age will now return to school to finish her education. We still need money for her 6 year old daughter’s school fees. Rebecca, my neighbor girl, has already left for school even though I just paid today. I guess she just told them that the money would be coming, and she just jumped into classes! She didn’t want to miss another day. Cecelia is one of the three the girls from the orphanage that we are working with and she will now attend school starting tomorrow. She is a happy young lady. We have helped four girls from the orphanage so far. There are three more from St. Jude’s Orphanage on my list, including the blind girl. If anyone is interested in helping, just send me an email at rhosling@msn.com. Overall, we have helped 9 people total get back to school.

Once a month USAID distributes food to HIV positive people.

I am a swim instructor once again. Isn’t life funny like that? The swim lesson coach from Gulu University was teaching a class when I was swimming laps, and we got to talking. I showed him how to do the back, breast, and butterfly strokes, and he asked me if I would demonstrate to his students. So today, I got in the water and worked with his swim students. We worked mostly on free style and then introduced the back stroke. I enjoy teaching people how to swim. So every Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon I will be teaching the Gulu College sports science class.

USAID distributing food at the orphanage.

After swimming, napping and reading by the pool, Kayla and I met Frederick in the garden of Acholi Inn for dinner. Acholi Inn Hotel has the best chicken and chips and salad! The music is always great, and the garden is beautiful. Although it is twice the cost ($5) to eat here rather than our normal places ($2.50), it is worth it!

Kayla is holding Baby Kayla and watching the knitting at the orphange.

I paid my electricity bill today. I know my friends in Hawaii will be jealous of my very large electricity bill of 30,000 UGX ($15) and my big water bill of 10,000 UGX ($5)! My rent for this two bedroom apartment is 365,000 UGX, or about $185. Yes, my money goes so much farther here in Gulu, Uganda than it does in Hawaii!!