Day 15, 16, & 17: Our last days in Kakooge

Day 15:
Another morning waking up to an African sunset and we're off again, this time to visit the local dental clinic and also St. Anthony's, a primary school for girls. With our incredible donation of 100,000 toothbrushes, we have been able to give every single person a toothbrush!

Days 16 & 17:
Between taking selfies with the children from the village, receiving goodbye gifts from the friars, and watching an attack of a praying mantis in Bianca's bed, we had another amazing Sunday in Kakooge. Monday was spent in clinic specifically working on the children we had met from St. Jude's, St. Anthony's, and the friars as well. After clinic, our last dinner included termites. Yep, that's right. Termites....yum. Apparently, when the termites come out, that's when you know the rainy season is about to start. Little did we know that was a foreshadowing for our Tuesday adventures. After dinner and after Bianca held Marian's new rooster, everyone gathered around the projector to watch a slide show of all the photos and videos (along with the Backstreet Boys background music)that were taken during our wonderful time in Kakooge. Tears may have been shed, but more smiles and laughter were found as we remembered the unbelievable time we had together. We really wish we could upload all of them, but we think it would be a little too obnoxious to put over 2,000 photos on the blog to go through. You better believe it. And you better believe we were upset we had to leave such an amazing place with such amazing people.

One of the many selfies

A few laughs around the grill

Goretti with the girls

Termites, termites, and more termites!

Bianca is in love...you can see it on her face

Days 12, 13, & 14: You Can Never Have Too Much OHI

Day 12:
Waking up to a kind note and a freshly picked red rose on our door was a great way to start the day off with a smile. It just shows you how hospitable and wonderful the friars are. We came as strangers to their home and yet they treat us as family. We spent the morning at St. Judes primary school in Kakooge giving oral hygiene instruction and passing out many of our 100,000 toothbrushes to the children. St. Judes is home to many children, similar to a boarding school. The children greeted us with songs that made us smile from ear to ear. It seems that Kakooge tends to have that effect on us.

We toured the school and set off to have lunch in the gazebo by the friary. A neighboring family offered to cook us a traditional meal with Matoke, Chapati, chicken, Binyebwa (a groundnut sauce), and the always delicious pineapple. After saying our thank you to the family and holding a couple baby goats, we headed back to the friary. We built up an appetite playing soccer with the kids and had another bbq with the friars. Between telling more stories and great conversation, we headed to bed ready for the next few days in clinic.

Giving toothbrushes to the headmaster at St. Judes

Playing a little netball before lunch

Lunch in the gazebo

Baby goats!

Yet another successful bbq on the patio

Days 13 & 14:
We spent Thursday in Muwangi and Friday in Batuusa. Thursday was African Children's Day and another sweet note was left on our doorstep at the end of the day. We spent most of our time in clinic working with mothers and children. I think the whole team would agree when we say it was "the day of screamers". The village didn't have a lot of great experiences in the past, so their mindset was that treatment would be extremely painful even with anesthetics.

The end of clinic day

What a sweet goodbye from Muwangi

On Friday, two of the highlights of the day were when Dr. Farmer not only got bitten, but also peed on by a 2 year old. What a way to end the day. A year from now, we will definitely still be laughing about that one. The village also made us a traditional meal for lunch. At the end of the day, we had to say goodbye to our driver for the week, Thomas. Thank you for keeping us alive on those muddy and bumpy roads, pal. Not to mention, we made a friends with the newest member of the friary, a baby kitten we named, Meat Grinder/Lil Nugget. (don't ask, long story)

Take a peek at a traditional Ugandan meal

OHI! OHI! OHI!

Goodbye, Thomas! Thank you for being so awesome!