7/7

What a joyous Birthday!

87% of normal and improving; that is an achievement to be at compared from about 38 hours ago. I could have sworn I was giving birth. Yes, I am completely aware that I am a man, and so much that science as told us this is not possible, for all I knew just over 2 days ago at around 2.30am, this is exactly what was happening, where was I supposed to find a midwife now? So happy birthday to my newborn and me! Just hours after I entered the 27^th anniversary of the day of my birth and the previously sanctioned COS date (Close of Service) of my Peace Corps service I am sent writhing in pain behaving like a combination between a dog trying to find a proper position to sleep in and a fish caught out of water. As the sun rose without having an definable sleep, I lied in that bed feeling that there was something amiss about this past night. Obviously no baby birthing was to contribute to the night’s events, so I could only attribute the pain possibly to the consumption of ostrich, wildebeest, springbok and crocodile meat from the night before. As I felt somehow improved from the combination of feeling feverish and feeling like my insides were turning inside out I went back to work the next day with the assumption that all was A-OK! The walk to work was somehow laborious, I just felt tired and still was having some pain in my side, but wasn’t the same as the night’s. Happy birthday to me yeah?

Well finally I arrive at the office ready to finish my last paperwork to end my service officially but in the mean time my mind can not get off the residual pain throbbing from the night before. Moving around the office, trying to find people here and there became too much and I knew that it was time to see if I was just being crazy (did I pull some weird muscle) or was something really going on? Assuming it’s not someone attempting to tickle you, give you a massage or treat you like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, someone poking at your abdomen is just odd, but it can tell a lot. Well unfortunately I cannot tell you a lot. Blood work: unremarkable; negative, nothing out of the normal. Urine analysis: yellow (somehow concentrated), otherwise normal. Malaria test: negative. Liver Functionality Test: normal; normal, and normal. What is was the cause of the intense pain, general discomfort and lethargy, and fevers that have been going on? Today is my birthday and my last day of service and this is how I go out? I have things I need to do, people I need to see and places I need to go! A memorial for a friend who passed 2 years ago I am going to miss. The anniversary for priesthood for a friend of mine—I am going to miss. What if this continues? Are they going to evacuate me? We don’t even know what it is?

Though my entire body was aching and I was moving at a snails pace, I was surprised by the staff of the Peace Corps Office with a lunch and cake (though none of them had known at the time how I had been feeling). This was totally unexpected and was amazing to have been treated so well by these friends and colleagues of Peace Corps Uganda. If only I could have been a bit more animated I know that I could have shown my appreciation a bit more, but I hope they know how much that meant to me. After that I went back to lying down and soon I found that my birthday was going to end with what I believe to be my first IV. Maybe I have had one before but I have a memory like an 80-year Alzheimer’s patient. So after a liter of fluids were inserted directly in to my bloodstream I was on my way home, hoping and praying that this was the end, and maybe this was just a little food poisoning or something? So I did actually end the evening with a piece of lasagna out at a restaurant, but the night’s course of sleep consisted of feverish and sweaty sleep though waking feeling fairly refreshed on the 8^th. Whew, that was brutal but look’s like there is light…

…Well that was a bit too soon to think that! Let me be short with this account even though the events here were arguable worse than the day’s prior. I thought things were good and I walked up some stairs and got halfway up and couldn’t catch my breath and my abdomen and back were in pain and I figured oh this is all okay and then I spoke on the phone while pacing for 5 minutes only to feel like I was running a marathon and breathing almost consciously and finally going back to the medical unit and being like oh yeah now something is wrong we have to figure this out and no this isn’t just me and no this isn’t just some muscle pull and something really is or has been going on inside of me and we need to go figure this out NOW! Blood work, malaria test, urine analysis, more Pillsbury Doughboy pushing, chest x-rays, ultrasound (nope, no baby)...I tried to walk up a hill but had to sit down. It was as if ‘pain/anguish’ had taken the form of some spirit and was squeezing me and sucking all of the air out of me! Someone wheel me up the hill those last 30 meters. Thank you so much, really, thank you, I couldn’t make it. It doesn’t make sense. I can sit there and chat with you—yes the pain is still there and it is laborious to breathe—but I can sit and chat as if it is a normal day. You want me to breathe, laugh, walk, turn, move and do all that and we have a problem…well NOW we have tested so many things and what, well we don’t really know? Could be a viral fever? Could be a kidney stone? Could be a combination of the two or something random and completely different and we just don’t know? Give me just one more night of a fever and sweating myself to sleep and now I’ve finally entered a beautiful pasture of hope and joy and delight and smiles and baby hippos and squirrels playing and endless snow cone and cotton candy machines! There is no intention to imply the use of psychotropic drug use, more to show the difference between how the past 2 days were in comparison to the here and now. I guess the best birthday gift I was given was relief from the past 2 days and it has come! So why don’t we let the next 363 days of year 27 pass without any stones? or other inexplicable pains and I thank Uganda for an amazing last 40 months of my life!

You Tube Channel

I don't have many videos on there, but some of the videos that I post on here I have also posted on my YouTube Channel that is ill-used. All of this new techonology is beyond me. Go here for some videos...maybe I will add more?


http://www.youtube.com/user/kozadaniel?feature=mhum#p/u




STORY TIME:
Last year at right around this time I had ventured back to the US for my home leave between my 2nd and 3rd years of service. Having been in Uganda for 2 years away from most technologically revulotionary electronic gadgets, I didn't know exactly how I was going to handle some of the what had become common everyday personal possessions. Yes, in Uganda one can get an iPhone, or an iPad, or a Samsung Pad thing or any of those, but the costs are through the roof and I don't really know where they are purchased. Anyway, back to the story. So I had of course heard of this whole iPad revolution that had begun and was nervous/curious to see what the craze was all about. Upon entering the Apple story I was greeted by a very courteous staff member wearing a black Apple t-shirt named Catherine. My heart was racing, what do I do, there is so much in here and its not even like a kid in a candy store any more but rather a grown adult inside of the NASA Atlantis Space Shuttle with no clue what anything really does and afraid to touch anything. I inquired about the iPad and was led by Catherine the black t-shirt wearing Apple employee with a large name tag around her neck and some weird iPhone-looking gadget in her hand (it had some weird additional attachment to it) to one of these infamous iPads. She immediately picked it up and plopped it in to my hands. Palms sweaty with nervousness and confusion, I began to hold this space age object up in the air, looking underneath it as if I am looking for an oil leak in a car; proceeded to smell it, listen to it, and hold it at arms length from me as if it was a baby that suddenly began to urinate and giggle. Catherine attempted to ease my obvious fear by showing me with a touch of her finger how one could manipulate this iPad to do whatever the heart desires. Ever so briefly, I attempted to poke at the display as one might poke at a hot liquid to ensure it has cooled properly only to suddenly shove the device in to Catherine's hands and exit the shop quickly embarrasingly, behaving exactly as one might after tripping on their own to feet while walking on the side walk and looking around making sure no one is around and that no one saw.

Let it be known that was my first and only iPad experience. What is going to happen in round 2 in some few weeks? Only time will tell.

We Have Won The Battle

Here is a short little music video created by Mr. Kafeero Bernard, a music teacher at the NTC, Kaliro. This song was written by Mr. Kafeero for our most recent graduation assembly at the NTC, Kaliro and is a message describing the struggle that is education and that through fighting adversity we are able to succeed.

Panic Waiting Patiently

The Nile River at Sunset:
Sometimes I forget how often I cross one of the largest and most historical rivers in the world...

How do you just miss one thing? It is such a frequent question. Even I admit to asking that very question to persons when they are leaving something that has been especially dear to them. Does that very level of question limit our thinking for any specific reason? I have trouble focusing my attention on one specific aspect. Is it wrong simply to lump life altogether and say that I will miss that? Though excitement and new experiences are there on the horizon and I am striving for them, this land, this food, these people, these conversations, this laughter, this sorrow, these sunsets, these long dusty walks—this life—to me is just one thing. One very big thing to miss. One very big thing to remember. One very big thing to one day live again?

In less than 5 weeks I will take my first steps on to that plane at Entebbe International Airport and in my hand I will be holding that infamous 'one way ticket.' Though I have returned to Oregon twice over the course of the past 40 months, none of those times could have prepared me for these next steps. Both of those times I had with me a date and time for my return home to Uganda. I had throughout those holidays thoughts in my mind of the work to be done, of the people to see, of obligations to be fulfilled.

Someone mentioned to me that maybe 'panic' is just waiting patiently in a room. Maybe that is so. Actually, most likely that is so. So in the famous words of Jean -Luc Picard, 'Make it so'. Bring on the panic, bring on the fear, bring out the confusion of what comes next. Though fear raptures the mind like a blitzkrieg sometimes the excitement of the unknown and a new challenge is enough to wage war and to come out the victor.

Tomorrow I will wake up with one less day in Uganda—when looking in the mirror that is simply one day closer to a black hole of endless possibilities.

Stones and Steel

Chameleon Season: These days the chameleons are plenty and its always amazing to watch them cautiously move at the pace of a sloth as you stand and watch them, but the moment that you walk away they then begin to speed up and move away! Though this one is not camouflaged so much, others that I've seen can hardly be noticed as they appear more like a tree branch or a leaf.

(from left: Fr Anthony Bukyanagandi, Daniel Koza)
Floor Installment at St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church: Thanks to the gracious support for the second year running of St. Joseph's Catholic School in Vancouver, Washington. With this latest bout of intense fundraising, the students were able to raise enough to lay a cement floor in the church. I have to admit that I was astonished when I first saw the completed work. The floor opens the room up so more, makes the environment so much more clean, and is a much more sanitary environment than the previous dirt floor. Here I am posing with Fr. Anthony Bukyanagandi, parish chaplain.

(from left: Kirya Robert, Daniel Koza)
Keepin' it Classy: While the NTC, Kaliro football team was competing against NTC, Kabale in Arua town, Kirya Robert and myself were keeping it real on the sidelines supporting the team. Though the match ended in a draw, the team played well and went on to play again in the evening.

(from left—all on my Athletics Team: Kirya Robert, Daniel Koza, (top) Kongai Caroline, (bottom) Arudo Anna Grace, Lubega Matias)

End of Games: Well the Intercollegiate Games being held in Arua at NTC, Muni began on the 17th of April and ended on the 20th of April, and while our teams did not perform to the level that many of us had anticipated, I have to say that I am so proud of all of the sports persons at NTC, Kaliro—from the Netballers, Volleyballers, Footballers, Athletes as well as Mr. Isabirye, Mr. Awiyo and Ms. Sarah—all of you put in so much work to compete in this competition. I am most proud though of my athletes (track and field participants). Acting as the Athletics coach at the college was tough, spending many early mornings and late evenings out on the pitch training and many nights sleeping restlessly as we had to cut very qualified individuals as the team was limited by numbers. I will be sad not to be around to coach this next academic year when the teams will travel to NTC, Kabale, in southwestern Uganda.

Playlist of the Moment:
Track Title—Artist
1. Architects and Engineers—Guster
2. Home is a Fire—Death Cab for Cutie
3. Runaway—The National
4. Love Is All—The Tallest Man on Earth
5. Twilight Galaxy—Metric
6. Mayday—Dispatch
7. Life Is Simple In The Moonlight—The Strokes
8. Fake Empire—The National
9. You Are a Tourist—Death Cab for Cutie
10.Brick By Brick—Train
11.Burden of Tomorrow—The Tallest Man on Earth
12.This Ain't Goodbye—Train
13.Lemonworld—The National
14.A Little's Enough—Angels and Airwaves
15.Meyrin Fields—Broken Bells
16.Pieces of What—MGMT
17.Good For Great—Matt & Kim


Websites of the Moment:
http://www.monitor.co.ug
http://www.newvision.co.ug

(Always good to check out those websites, especially these days with the 'Walk-to-Work' protests with Besigye and the recent swearing-in/government expenditures by Museveni)



Stones and Steel


Blink, don't blink
It moves and moves
Even in slow motion
You'll miss it
Pictures you take
Only blank captures
Of scriptures foreign
Becoming so dark

Shake, don't shake
It's still, so still
Lacking momentum
You make believe
Sites discovered
Through imagination
Places uncovered
And covered again

There's a fire
Burning the walls
Burning the falls
There's a fire
That you sit around
And you close your eyes
There's a fire and
All the pictures
All the sites
Slow down
They're real
There's a fire
Feel the warmth

There's a fire
There's a fire
There's a fire

Battano (Arbuckle)

So as I enter my bedroom to snatch a pair of jeans lying on the ground to throw on, I notice in the unlit room some, small blob near the waist of my jeans. I immediately drop the jeans, and proceed to flip the switch, flooding the room with a dim light. What is this mysterious blob which I had seen lying in the pile of clothes on the floor? It looked at the time like a large prune, which would be interesting as I have yet to see a prune in this country. Upon further inspection I find the mystery blob to be a young, little, knock-kneed just out of the womb bat! Whoa now!

Battano (Arbuckle)

How did you get here?! Yes most, if not every evening I go to sleep with the not-so-pleasant of bats flying around outside or between my ceiling panels and roof. Yes I have had bats in my house that I tactfully smack out of my house with broom, not before getting smacked in the head once or twice (I guess their sonar wasn't as good as they thought?). But this little guy was a petite, moist, furball who would stretch out when being bothered and there were serious parts of me that was hoping it would jump up, bite me, and I would be the second-coming of Batman (the first coming was real). This little guy managed to find his way in to the small crevice between the back of my backpack and where the shoulder straps enter, so my work was cut out for me to get him out even though he moved at a sloth's pace—I didn't want to hurt my new little friend. Now, I must admit, I didn't have the desire or energy to take this little guy under my wing as just like Principal Figgins on Glee, I believe that Vampires are real and are soon going to take over this world. I carefully picked up Arbuckle (his name for now) and brought him outside...oh so sad I could see him shivering in the cool air away from my dirty pile of clothes! Well, as you can see from the snap, I took advantage of his inability to move at this stage, because I placed him on the cool cement next to a bitanno (500 shilling coin about the size of a nickel). After Arbuckle's little photo shoot, a small bed of dried leaves and mulch was made for him in the corner of the patio in hopes that he would warm up and fly off...

The next morning he wasn't there. I choose to hope that he dried off, spread his wings, and is thriving out in the real world. So yes, I think that is where this story goes. He now lives amongst his brothers and sisters and who knows yet if he left me a little gift of gratitude giving me an uncanny ability to fight crime while wearing skin-tight black clothes and having a better voice than the most current Hollywood Bruce Wayne.

So to my friend Battano (Arbuckle), my hat is off to you in your new life in the skies and away from the piles of dirty clothes in my room. And I must say I assume that my immediate decision to put the jeans on without inspecting for any more creatures is in fact a message to me of how used I've become to having spiders, cockroaches (in fact when I enter pit latrines I choose to talk to the cockroaches as if they are equals rather than getting terrified), bats, stray cats, goats, chickens...the list goes on...to having all of these species living side by side with me. Oh joy! (

4 Nights, 3 Days (3rd April 2008)

First of all, I have recently come across two amazing sites! I think that you should all check them out and take 'em for a spin:

http://roguevalley.bandcamp.com

http://www.lostinroguevalley.com

These guys know what it is about...




The following was written 3 years ago today in my journal—a journal which is scarcely written in as my ability to keep either a journal or a planner has lacked for almost 27 years at this point...

Shoe + Duct Tape + Head Lamp + Profuse Sweating=Long Live the Cockroach
A snap taken 3 years ago today, I had quite the adventurous evening as I scurried around my bed room on hands and knees to get the cockroach that had been disturbing my sleep by climbing all over (and in) my mosquito net...

4 Nights, 3 Days

Crazy to think that on 19/2/08 I arrived here at my homestay! After spending the past hour assisting my 7 y old sisters with their homework that I feel their parents have very little influence in, I ate dinner and had my evening exercise. By evening I mean I just broke into a profuse sweat chasing a giant cockroach around my room in my boxers, a headlamp and a sheet of paper with duct tape on its underside. What other life could I be living where this would not seem so strange? Even after I achieved apparent victory over this prehistoric nuisance, I can nearly guarantee you that his partner in crime is somewhere in this room waiting to creep under my mosquito net and to attack me!

So in waiting for dinner tonight, looking at Namakula and Hadijja's homework I came to the conclusion that my host parents really have no investment in their children's education aside from the monetary aspects, which is quite unfortunate. In look @ their work, the spelling and math errors were simple enough to happily fox in a matter of a few minutes, but the majority of work in their notebooks seemed to be marked but not corrected. Learning seems impossible in this scenario as the children are either A) learning nothing @ all because it is merely repetition, or B) learning false information which one is the case is nonetheless a tragedy, but the whole system seems to be &$*%!*!

My time here @ Eka ya Mwami Mugaya (improper Lusoga) is coming to an end. I have ultimately been quite satisfied with my experience here. It has been an unbelievable experience that could never be replicated and I have learned so much! Although clashing of cultural norms has occurred, all in all the past 8 weeks shall not be forgotten. And now I shall drift off in a damp sheet of sweat to dreams controlled by Mefloquine while I subconsciously tally one night off of this first adventure, only to get nearer to the next 2 years of my journey.....