Oh, what I have been up to. That is a good question. After a couple semesters of not having much to do, I decided to head over to the secondary school and offer to teach. Well, it just so happens that they just had nine computers donated, but no teacher! Talk about my lucky day! Despite the many horror stories I have heard about teaching computers, I was psyched to finally have something to do and to work with secondary students instead of unmotivated teachers. Oh, boy. If only I had known what I was getting myself into. On day one we had already broken one computer and by “we” I mean some overanxious student who has never touched a computer in his/her life and won’t stop pushing buttons. By the time I came back from America two more were broken. Now, we have six computers and my classes have usually around sixty kids in them. I’m sure you are thinking, well why don’t you just break them into groups? Well, even that is a disaster because they are so excited to use the computers that they lie their faces off about whether or not they have already studied. By week four I am starting to get it under control, but that’s only when the power is on. I would say the power is off way more than it is on. Many days I come in the morning and sit around waiting all day for the power to come back. Needless to say, I real a lot of books. While teaching computers feels like punishment, I really enjoy the staff at the secondary school. They are much more educated than those at the primary school so we can talk about meaningful things and we understand each other because they know english well. You have no idea how nice that is after not having it for a year and a half.

The other day my friend Michael was home from boarding school and came to visit me. He started telling me about how the girls dorm at the school was having some trouble with cannibalism. Cannibalism in the girls dorm? I am intrigued. He went on to say that a couple of girls had woke up to find parts of their hair cut off. So of course, I question him about this wondering why he thinks these girls are cannibals. He says that some people in this area are cannibals, but once they go away to boarding school they have the witch doctor put a spell on them so they will not act in that way while at school. However, sometimes the spell wears off, as it did with these girls. He begins to explain that these people usually go around digging up dead bodies to eat and that he has heard them outside his window at night. Apparently, when they moved past his window they made a sound similar to that of a helicopter landing. He tells me that they have a few sharp teeth that come out to make eating the bodies a bit easier and that they only eat at night. I say, “Michael, are you telling me these people are vampires and if so, have you ever read Twilight, because if not you should borrow my books?” He said that he has seen some vampire movies and he was very scared because those are the kinds of people that live in the village. Hmmmm....

The next day I went to school and I sought out the director of studies to ask him about the problems in the girls dorm. He gets super awkward and tells me not to worry because they are taking care of it. After a bit of prying I get out of him that one girl in the dorm is performing witchcraft and that they are going to find out that day who she is. The following day he reports to me that they girls have identified the girl performing witchcraft and have sent her away from the boarding section, but not before calling the parents of the girl to come to the school. I expected that when they were told their girl was being accused of witchcraft that they would fight it, but they just said, “We had no idea she was performing witchcraft.” and took her home! I would like to know what the real story is. I bet she is a sleepwalker or talks in her sleep.

One day Carol was talking about how one of my neighbors was mad at the other for something, so he went to the witch doctor and had a spell put on him. For months, the normally hardworking neighbor, did nothing but sit around. The village is now scared of the neighbor who “put the spell on the other.”

In other witchcraft news, I heard on the radio the other day about this women who’s village has blamed her of performing witchcraft and killing many people in the village. Apparently, the last straw was when her neighbor was found “mysteriously dead.” The village destroyed all of her crops, killed all of her animals, and burned her house. Now she has no money, no where to go, and children to feed. These people do not take witchcraft lightly.

I love my dogs and I am more than happy I have them, but Ugandans and my dogs drive me bonkers. My village likes Mugezi and they are usually pretty good to her, but poor Fence has a rough life here. Mugezi and Fence were both teased quite a bit as pups. I used to find kids barking at him or throwing rocks at him for no reason. Now, Fence has some aggression issues, to say the least, and I feel my village is taking full advantage of it. When I was recently in the states for Ashley’s wedding, Fence bit a child. Now, of course my dogs are vaccinated against rabies and I have proof (as a side note they are the only vaccinated dogs in the village), but the family wants their child to be vaccinated anyway. It cost me fifty bucks, but I felt so bad for the kid that I didn’t really care. However, then they want ten dollars (I know it doesn’t sound like much, but its a lot of money for a family in the village) for the witch doctor. Now, I am annoyed. I paid for you to go all the way to the district hospital and now you want me to pay for some herbal remedy from the witch doctor that was never prescribed (this is where I lack in cultural understanding)? Not to mention there is no way the witch doctor costs ten bucks. That is outrageous for a local remedy. They were of course lying. Then, they tell me that he isn’t able to eat some foods and that they want money for rice. Now I am just plain mad. I loved this kid and now they are trying to get all the money they can out of me. I understand that my dog bite him and that I am responsible, but I did more than my part. It is when things like this happen that I question what I am doing here. I know, I shouldn’t complain too much because if this would have happened in America it would have been much different, but the point is that if the dog would have happened to belong to an Ugandan not much would have been said about it or they would only have had to pay for the witch doctor and not ten bucks. I guess sometimes I feel that some of these people don’t appreciate that I have left my family, friends, and culture to help them. Its like no matter what I do its not enough because I am not giving away all of my money.

Last week I am out with my two dogs, Carol’s dog, and another neighbor’s pup in a large open field where animals graze. It is the only place I can take Fence to let him run free (without any kids around) for a couple of hours before having to tie him back up. The dogs were playing and swimming for about an hour when they take off towards some sheep. I don’t think anything of it. My dogs will usually bark at them and maybe chase them around a bit, but that’s about it. So, I see them chase them a bit and then they are down in a hole and it looks like they are digging. When I reach the hole I realize that the two other dogs are eating a baby sheep. The baby is alive and just laying there while they have taken a piece of meet out of its behind the size of a baseball. I try getting the dogs away, but these are dogs who are not fed regularly and definitely have never had meat. They finally run away, but start chasing and trying to eat other sheep. While there are many men around and I am screaming in a panic trying to get all of the dogs away from the sheep, everyone is just watching me. Finally, my friend Tony heard me and came to help. It was awful. I had no idea what to do. It seemed like it would be better to just kill the poor thing, but it wasn’t mine and I felt too guilty. So, I carried him home. Of course I arrive at Momma Carol’s, covered in blood and holding a sheep with a large hole in it, during the primary school’s break. Everyone looks at me and says, “Nalubega, your dog ate this sheep.” I wanted to scream! It wasn’t my dog. I told them probably fifty times that it was Carol’s dog and the neighbor’s dog, but still all I hear is “Fence has bad manners. He likes to eat animals and bite children.” Ahhhhhh! He only wants to bite your kids because your kids throw rocks at him and beat him for no reason and he isn’t the one who attacked the sheep! Did he want to eat it after it was half slaughtered, probably, but your dog would too! We decided to call our neighbor who is a vet and he came to see what he could do. Some of my good students were around and we decided to clean the wound and sew him back up. While this whole situation was awful, at least it was educational for the kids. They have seen more animal surgeries in the past year (the spaying and neutering of Mugezi and Fence and this) because of me. Anyway, I assume that the owner is not going to want the sheep. It is in bad condition and it might not be able to use its behind leg again and it would take a lot of time and energy to keep it alive. So, I figure I will buy the sheep from the man and then give it to Momma Carol to take care of.

I went to town to buy a baby bottle to feed it with and while I was away the owner comes to Momma Carol’s house. Apparently he was really mad because someone said that my dogs had attacked his sheep. However, Momma Carol told him that it wasn’t my dog, but that it was her dog. As soon as he finds out that it was her dog he calms down and all of the sudden decides he wants the sheep and about twelve dollars. If it would have been my dog he would have demanded much more. For the life of me I cannot figure out why he wanted to bother with this sheep. Later I find out that he is the care taker of that sheep and not the owner. However, he took the twelve dollars as a bribe. He told Momma Carol that if she gave him the money that he would tell the owner that he found the sheep that way and that a wild animal must have attacked it. He would also claim that he is the one that paid for it’s medical treatment so the owner will have to pay him back when in reality I am the one that paid. Momma Carol went along with it because it would probably cost her less money this way. This sort of thing is normal in Uganda so I didn’t really think anything about it, but then I saw the care taker yesterday and found out that the sheep had died. I couldn’t understand why it died, but either they decided to kill it or they never bothered giving it its antibiotic. It doesn’t annoy me that I wasted that money, but that that sheep had to go through so much pain only to be left to die later and all because the care taker wanted money. However, I have learned never to go anywhere in this village with someone else’s dog.

In other news, I only here for five more months! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by and I cannot imagine what it is going to be like to leave this place. Especially the people who have made my time here worth the while!

Okay, my computer is going to die, so I am not proofreading! Forgive me!

Peace and love,

Autumn