It all started about a week ago, when Heather saw a little gray mouse dart across her bedroom floor one morning. She let out a shriek and ran into the hallway, but when Adam and I checked in on her to see what was wrong, the mouse had already disappeared. Fortunately, when we were in Kampala later that afternoon we were able to purchase some rat poison and scattered little pieces of it all around our house that evening. Well, the mouse consumed the poison, but apparently didn't die because we were unable to find a body the next morning.
After getting out of the shower later that day, I was rummaging through my suitcase to find some clothes to wear, when I saw the mouse burrowed in amongst my belongings. Naturally, I screamed and ran into Heather's room and jumped onto her bed. Adam went into my room to try and take care of the mouse problem, being the man that he is, while Heather and I stayed in her room. He managed to get it out of my room, but was unable to track where it ran next.
About half an hour later, Adam was ironing his clothes when he felt the mouse run across his foot. That proved to be the last straw, and we decided that we needed to get rid of this pesky little mouse once and for all. We closed all of the bedroom doors, except for Adam's, sealing the space between the doors and the floor with spare tshirts to prevent all escape routes. Then, Adam tried to usher the mouse out of his room and into the hallway where I was waiting with a cooking pot to trap the rodent inside. Our plan worked perfectly, and despite my uneasiness surrounding the mouse, I managed to swallow my fears and timed the dropping of the pot onto the mouse perfectly as it sprinted out of Adam's room. Since we lacked a more humane way to dispose of the mouse, we simply kept it inside the cooking pot and piled a bit of weight on top of it, allowing the mouse to starve to death over the course of a few days. Mice may be cute as pets (not really), but they are definitely not cute when they most likely contain rabies and are trying to create a nice, comfortable home within your own home. So, thus went the mouse hunt. Our house is currently mouse-free and we are hoping it will stay that way...but if it doesn't, we kept the cooking pot to use again for that purpose just in case (don't worry, we will never use it for cooking again).
The SWB girls' team from Ndejje, Uganda
I just graduated from the University of Illinois where I played on the Fighting Illini's varsity soccer team for four years. The past three springs, I have served as the assistant coach to Champaign Centennial's Girls Varsity Soccer Team. Additionally, I have volunteered in Rio Verde, Mexico the past three summers as a coach for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes sports camp. I have a passion for coaching and working in Mexico really opened my eyes to how blessed young players in the United States are to have the opportunities they do to participate in organized sports. For this reason, I chose to volunteer for Soccer Without Borders as a long-term intern. The values that Soccer Without Borders promotes are values that I believe are important and I look forward to working with the kids in Uganda. This is a chance for me to step outside of my comfort zone and really give back to the game that has provided me with so many incredible opportunities. To everyone who is supporting me in this endeavor, thank you so much. I will do my best to send out updates of my experiences before, during, and after the ten months I spend living in Uganda. I am very excited about this adventure, but also somewhat nervous and even a bit scared! However, I am confident that my experiences over the past four years have prepared me well for what is to come and hopefully I will make a difference in the lives of the kids I will be working with!
Friday, February 11, 2011
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