Registering for classes…is this blog too late? Maybe not!

When registering for classes at Penn State while living in Media, PA I would sit in my bed with my laptop and chose the classes that I wanted and needed to take (according to my diploma) and clicked submit. Then three times in the course of the semester I had to go to the bursar’s office and pay my tuition. That was it…over and done with.

Let me discuss UGANDAN STYLE!!!

Firstly, I was accepted to the Makerere University…OH NO SORRY….I wasn’t really accepted, I just got an “acceptance letter” and wasn’t really accepted until after I registered at the end of September. (Wow…how this could have all turned out really bad). I forge on. I had to first go to the centrally located Senate building to get my student number then preceded to walk for about 8 min to the main building were I had to get the account number of the university. I then had to find a bank and open an account, so I could pay the tuition by bank draft. (That took a week in itself). The bank was able to “transfer” the money to the schools account. Okay…great…. but no, they weren’t set up to do that YET. I was told to wait one week and then return. I waited one week. That turned into two. I finally got the bank draft and went to the Main building where I gave them my back draft and they gave me a receipt. I then had to return to the senate building where I was to fill out forms, paste my picture, and copies of my diploma from PSU, and my transcript from high school, PAUSE……..MY WHAAAAAT???? Sidebar…I was informed that scans would be enough. WRONG…so after being told to ‘GO HOME TO CANADA “ and get them, I pleaded, but that didn’t work, so I tried tears and that didn’t even work.
Discouraged I went home for the day and well gave myself a week off.

I return with my documents (except those copies) and a gentleman wearing a pink shirt tells me he was so sorry about what had happened last week that he will admit me “provisionally” until I can get the copies they need to see. He gives me MORE forms and directs me.

I now go for another walk to get a signature…then walk another 10 min to another building to get a stamp onto of the signature. Then walk to another building to get another signature…and then to another building to quadruple check that I did in fact pay the tuition and then get that stamp on top of that last signature.

Then I was suppose to take all the forms and get my student I.D. card…BUT they were done taking pictures for the day, so I retuned yet again to get the card. Which was hilarious because they had to “adjust” the colour 50 times because I was SO white!

I finally registered the last week of September.
Or…actually…I just thought I did.

Today Kate asked me to help her finish registering and I took her to all the rooms that she needed to have stamps and signatures. When I went into the room the lady recognized me (why wouldn’t she? She has only stamped and signed and seen me 50 times). She hands Kate these forms and tells her to register…I barked “What I never did that”…ERRRRRR more forms to fill out. Kate then didn’t want to wait, so she fills it out and takes it to the appropriate office as she then asks “after all this am I registered?” No, she then shows us a books that we have to sign”.

Just as we are about to walk out she says “DON’T FORGET TO REGISTER FOR AN EXAM PERMIT”. I almost dropped dead. Today is Wednesday and exams start MONDAY.

Just writing this blog as exhausted me…and the thought of having to do it again next month makes me want to…I love Uganda!!

Life after CHOGM!!

Hello all! Sorry for the delay…I have been told that I am making people bored (wink wink Maureen) because I am not posting new topics. The internet has been so extremely slow and I just cant be bothered to spend 45 minutes to open google.

Not a lot of news to write about, so I will tell you all about illness #3 because I find it really funny. Actually, when I told Josh about it I laughed the whole time…he didn't find it as humourous as I did!

It must have been two weeks ago now. I started getting these “bites” late at night and I woke up, turned on the light (I had electricity that night!!) and scanned my room for a mosquito. I couldn’t find anything so I went back to bed…and again I was itchy. I thought then, that there must be something in my bed. Anyway, I finally feel asleep. When I woke up in the morning…HOLY COW…I had these…ummm…let me call them mutations…all over my ENTIRE body. There were weltches about the size of saucers or pancakes, bright red, and about ½ an inch thick. They were very hot and very very very itchy.

I called Daddy Tusu and he told me come to his office, so his brother (a Doctor) could look at me. Dr. Alex told me to go to the hospital and get a shot…

Like a good little Muzungu I went to the hospital…yes, let me admit I was freaking out…just a little bit!

I get to the hospital and it was very early, so there was not that many people and I got to see the Doctor right away. When the Dr. called me, he entered his office and sat down. AS SOON AS I WALKED INTO THE EXAM ROOM I LIFTED UP MY T-SHIRT TO HIM THE HUGE WELT ON MY STOMACH. The look on the Dr’s face was priceless, a little fear mixed with disgust he immediately slammed the door shut and asked me what I had eaten. He told me I was having an anaphylactic reaction to something and I need to get an immunization.

Off I go to the nurse’s station where I had a very unpleasant experience from Illness #2 where I was lucky to have received my first ever needle in the bum!!! Love it…I recommend it…incase you ever get bored…you might just want to get one!

Before I continue…I need you to understand something. In Uganda, at the hospital I went to anyway, they use needles that have the diameter much the same as a nail…good lord, you feel that needle for 2 weeks after…

Ok…I continue…

I sit down on the Doctors table/bed…whatever you call it. The nurse says, “This is going straight into the vein”…OK! SO? I’m a humanitarian…NOT a Doctor…I DIDN’T have any idea why that we would be any different…She was very gentle…but how gentle can one be when they are stabbing you with a …nail…. as she injected the medicine I said “Oh my! That really really hurts” so she takes the needle out and that left a huge cavern in the vein, and started to massage my hand a little…that is when I could feel that medicine go up my arm, I started to get VERY HOT, then VERY Nauseous, then I told the nurse “Please give me a bucket, I am going to vomit” which to her probably sounded something like “ MMMMMERRRMERRRRMERRR” and then I passed right out…cold!!!

I have no idea how long I was laying there, but I was woken up to Miss…. then I think she said Muzungu…. Anyway when I woke up I felt much better… I went home on a Boda Boda (Motorcycle Taxi) and went to sleep for the entire day. The spots went away in the reverse order of the way they came, but they took a whole week to go away. It was the strangest thing. I think the Doctor was shocked at the way they appeared on my white skin. My friends told me that when they get spots like that they do not turn pink!!!

As of late in a nutshell…CHOGM is OVER thank the lord. School is coming to an end and my final coursework papers are due. Exams are on the week of the 10th. Josh arrives on the 17th!

Just a little observation…IF you read the blog a month ago about CHOGM you will understand this. My apartment is across the street from a major tourist attraction and they put street lights down my street, which is a really wonderful idea, because at night there is petty crime caused by the darkness and the lights would make the area safer…HOWEVER the lights worked for…lets count…two days before CHOGM…the four days of CHOGM…and two days after CHOGM…now the lamps sit there unlit!!! How wonderful! God Bless the Queen who helped prevent petty crime for a whole EIGHT days!!!

Have a great day…especially those of you in -20 weather…I send you my wishes from the comfortable +30!!!!!