Goats, Spikes, and Broken Bones

Monday the 14th started our second week in Uganda. Our job was to go to schools where LOL had installed libraries before and check in on them, see how the libraries are being used, meet with the students and play games with them. In the morning we were going to walk to a school nearby and in the afternoon play soccer with a high school. That morning we were waiting to walk to the school when a man came up to me and handed me a note and left. Looking at it, it had rows and columns of numbers. We passed it around and wondered if it was a curse of some sort. About 10 mins. later the man came back and handed Laura two coins and left again. Laura was a little freaked out. As we were walking someone explained. In hindu custom if you want to show appreciation for a group you give a coin ( or pay homage) to the youngest female (the princess). This man liked what our group was doing.
When we first entered the school grounds a huge horn blasted like we had entered the grounds illegally - what did we do?!!! What we found out was that it was break time. The kids were coming out of the classrooms for recess. We put our bags in the office and then headed out to sing songs and play frisbees with the kids. Then it was time for them to go back to class. We went into the library and saw that it was missing a lot of books - good! It's being used! There was a pile of tattered and torn books that we needed to replace. We asked if we could go visit classrooms. I went with two other guys into the older grades (6 & 7th grade). When we entered the classrooms the students would stand and say "We welcome you, most honored visitors" (visitors is pronounced Vis-i-tas). We ask them to sit and introduce ourselves. We ask if they are enjoying the libraries and they clap and cheer. We ask them to hold up any library books and about 80% have one - AWESOME! We then open the floor for any questions about the US or the libraries. Some are shy, some have great questions - what is the weather like, how do you tend your crops, is Obama a good leader (the Africans are sooooooo proud of Obama) It is fun to answer questions and see what they think.
We have a few hours to explore the nearby stores or rest before the next school, a high school. It rains a little but we soon board a matatu (14 passenger van) and head to the school. When we get there is starts raining so we go into the library to check it out. This one is very different. It's in a HUGE room, all along the sides. I pulled out some books and could tell they hadn't been used much. First of all there was a layer of dust on the top of them, then the check out cards didn't have very many names. When Trudy sees this, she is not happy. We talk to the librarian and soon find out a few answers. First of all this room is used for much more than the library. It's a meeting room, a conference room, a testing room... It's kinda like TAKS testing, when a test occurs in that room everything on the walls has to come down or be covered. When there was a test they would completely move the books out of the room! So because of all these other circumstances it wasn't being used as planned. Before LOL left, they planned on providing fabric to hide the shelves during tests. But Trudy was also going to talk to administration to figure out how they can promote the use - what a waste if it just lay there.
The rain stopped so we went outside. A group of older boys flagged us down and we went over to talk to them. They wanted to show us a dance they had made to American music. One of the boys became enamored with Laura and started flirting and asked for her phone number and email address. One of the older men in our group asked him if he had an offer for her. The guy said he could offer 12 goats for her. We joked about this and I think Laura got a little uncomfortable about it. She was tired of boys looking at her and saying things in their language that she didn't understand.
From here we went to the edge of a field but decided not to play soccer. Mostly because so many kids left when the rain was coming - if they didn't leave they might get rained on their walk home. We decided instead to play volleyball. It was a lot of fun! It was muddy and there was some slipping - my arms were covered with mud at the end.
We were then waiting for our van so we could leave. All of a sudden we noticed Paul coming over holding his arm. He'd been playing soccer with some of the kids and fell and broken his collar bone! He was starting to pass out! We quickly called Wilbur who came to take him to a reputable hospital. It scared us! If Paul had to have surgery that would be scary! Would he go home? Could we find a good enough hospital... We went back to the hotel and ate waiting to hear about Paul.