Fundraising, Researching Uganda, Volunteering, The List Never Ends!

First I would just like to ask everyone, what happened to Uganda? Did it just fall off the map? I was in Chapters a few days ago while a friend was getting a book that they needed. While they were searching my feet somehow led me through the aisles laden with more books than one person could ever hope to achieve reading in their life time. I looked up stunned that I had somehow found the travel section; it must have been subconscious though because I know the layouts of almost all chapters. I started to look for a travel book which should have the inscription “UGANDA” written across the binding. It didn’t exist. I looked several times and could easily find: Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. Ok so there are almost all of the countries which surround the country that I am going to but Uganda was not in sight. Curious if I could find it in another book which grouped together countries I looked at the “Africa Safari” book. You guessed it! They did not include Uganda but they did have its neighbouring countries. I then went for a long shot and picked up the book entitled “Africa”. Luckily, and to my assurance, they did have Uganda in there, recognizing that it was in fact a country. There were 10 short pages in this huge book; the book cost $50. Refusing to spend $50 on a book which only contained 10 pages of information (most of it not useful as they described the Northern, Western and Easter part the most) I put down the book and left Chapters feeling lost and confused. I made a quick assumption that maybe because of the issues which are occurring in the Northern part of the country people did not want to visit Uganda as much as Kenya. I could understand that but I was still disappointed. A few days later, which brings me to today, I am in the University of Waterloo library looking for books on Uganda. I am located at a computer terminal and I type in the word “Uganda”. The search result comes up, the latest printed book: 1994. Great. I go and hunt in the stacks for an hour, surrounded by more books than Chapters holds, an unfathomable amount of words written on unfathomable amount of pages surrounding me. Everything becomes a blurry haze of published in 1982, “Rwanda: What Happened?”, Africa, The economic report for the southernmost tip of the strangest country which was published in 1924. What happened to Uganda? All of the books were not located in the stacks where they should have been and all of the literature surrounding where the book should have been was published pre-1994. Does this country even exist anymore? Does Uganda actually border Kenya, Sudan, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda? I have some strange feeling that an alien has zapped up the country, making it no longer exist after 1994. That is why no one travels there! That is why there is nothing written about it! The government is trying to hide the existence of aliens, and thus the people are led to believe the country is still there when it is, in fact, not. Now for the real question, where is my professor actually sending me? All jokes aside, this country does not have much literature written about it. This makes me excited and even more nervous. Hopefully with a little more persistence I will be able to uncover more to tell you about the country.

In the mean time I will be able to describe to you the journey that RS383 is taking me through. This class, which helps to prepare us to go on our placements, has just started to get the ball rolling. We are expected to volunteer for 20 hours at a local NGO in Kitchener-Waterloo. I still have not been able to plan out where I am going and to start planning when I am able to go. When is a big question, with all of the fundraising and the blur of trying to make sure all of my medical issues are being taken care of, it is difficult to find time to volunteer. I will be able to do it, but the medical side is taking up a lot of time. I have heard the horror story of the girl in the previous year who needed to have her wisdom teeth removed in a strange country. I have read about it and I have learned from it. I have an appointment for a consultation with the clinic that will be removing my wisdom teeth, on the advice of my dentist who I have just paid a visit to (it was 5 years overdue!). I have to go to the travel clinic soon to make sure that I can start getting the appropriate shots so that I can travel. For a girl who hates needles and stitches, this is starting to feel like I am going to be getting them regularly. Ahh! I guess it’s time to grow up and face my fears (and possibly invest in numbing cream for the shots). Fundraising is another component of the internship.

Fundraising is the biggest headache and the leading cause of stress in my life. As you may all be able to see a few nights ago I simply snapped and started to freak out at 1am. After writing, planning, getting out my highlighter and having a friend tell me that what happens will happen and me refusing, I finally calmed down and went back to sleep. I am still worried about the book reading that is going to take place. My mother is helping me to run the event since she is a member at the location where it is being held. She has been away on vacation and has not been able to check her e-mail for a week regarding tickets sold. I’m in the dark about the actual number since she did not have time to forward the information before she left (in her defence I did ask the night before she left, whoops!). I am just scared of having to cancel the event due to lack of attendance. If it happens, it will be a truly mortifying moment. I have been getting so excited for this event as well as being able to meet Dr. James Maskalyk formally. He is a truly amazing man and I look up to him. Having to cancel the event will be made even more mortifying because of this. If you have not read his book yet I do urge you to do so! Or you could even come to the event in order to meet him yourself and hear an excerpt from his book. He has written the book Six Months in Sudan. It is an inspiring book which made me want to join the Beyond Borders program even more. I hope that everything goes well for the event. If you are not able to come, please pass the message onto someone who may be able to attend. I appreciate any and all help that I receive. Thank-you all for making it through this particularly long blog post, I will update what is going on in coming-days.
Jacquelyn