Rock Star Treatment

Wow, the response to my year reflection has been really good! Webale kusiima banange! That's the pretentious Wes using local languange to thank you for appreciating my work. It's great to hear that some many people are reading my stuff and thinking I'm funny/insightful/awesome, whatever. Don't be shy with the sarcastic comments, i love em.

So (i start off a lot with "so" i've noticed) i've mentioned in earlier posts that I was a "rockstar" of the taxi system. We'll do to a bunch of turnovers and my unwillingness to put on a comedy show for taxi patrons, that is no longer true. There are guys who know me and we get along, but most of the time I just sit there and will the taxi not to break down, run out of gas, or stop a thousand times to run shady deals on the side of the road. However, I've become a minor rockstar on the village path circuit. Now that I have a bike, I've riding around the area and now people are more familiar with me. I move around and people are yelling greetings to me from the fields, some calling me by my local name. I feel like a politician or Brad Pitt or something moving around the area smiling and waving. I'll have to stop and kiss some babies, but that's kinda wierd here so maybe i won't! For the kids that still call me Muzungu, I stop, greet them in local language and tell them my name is Kampanya. This usually goes over well and I don't mind if people yells my name from a distance, it's kinda flattering. Some people put on headphones to drown out the noise and I'm sure I'll do that eventually, but for now, I like the rock star status!

So we're picking up the nets on Tuesday and are looking to distribute on the 4th and 5th. On the last distribution, which will be Kakoro Parish, the biggest on and the one my house lies in, we'll be inviting a bunch of District and Government peeps as well as PC staff. It's sure to be a long and stressful, yet rewarding day to finally finish with these nets and cover almost everyone in a political geographic area. There's about 25,000 people in Kakoro Sub County and almost every home will have enough to protect their most vulnerable. So so so so so cool!

In other news, there seems to be big leafs growing in my garden that I assume are some sort of squash or pumpkin. Every other sort of growth looks very weak and may not yield the results that I want (ie FOOD). One of my hens gave birth to 6 chicks (did i mention this already?) and I'm looking forward to eating them someday! I didn't get the "improved cocks" cause apparently the guy who tends my chickens already has 3...once again, hold the jokes! Ok, all for now. Going to Kampala next week for nets and my one year medical checkup. Hope I don't have some crazy disease...or any disease really!