The new building for pre-labor! Baby births in waiting, also for trainings, meetings, and more! The photos with Natalie (purple dress and founder of Shanti Uganda, the one with this whole vision) are of the new birthing center, the building that will be set aside more privately for women in labor and ready to give birth.

SHANTI UGANDA & EARTH RISING
The New Birthing Center
2/10/2010
　
Today we embarked to the construction site of Shanti Uganda’s new birthing center, but as a caravan of bodas, or motorcycles. What a joyride, riding on a motorcycle was thrilling, feeling the wind, seeing all around you, waving to locals all along the ride. It was awesome. And we were being filmed the whole time by two people from Australia/New Zealand. These are making a film called/about Women in Yoga, and Seane is being highlighted especially regarding her Off the Mat Into the World work. So the filmmakers are filming these three days we spend with Shanti Uganda. And one of them is in a jeep, standing, torso out of the roof, filming us the whole time.

So, once we arrived, we met the men workers and women volunteers on the construction site, and we saw everything our fundraising is paying for. One birthing center, one examination/general purpose building for women in waiting, office, education/training, and yoga, and one gazebo type structure to have a thatch roof for outdoor gatherings and meetings. The birth center will have a birthing tub as well as a small plastic bowl embedded in the earth for squatting, so midwives can grab the baby and pull out avoid floor contamination and especially to prevent any HIV+ spread from mother to baby. The building will run on solar power and have a drainage system which will collect water for use at the center.

So today we became part of the process, Natalie, founder of Shanti Uganda, toured us around the soon to be facilities. Adam, founder of Earth Rising, is the building contractor for the job. Both happen to be Canadians, young and very nice, fun people, passionate about what they do. We were split in groups to help out in different ways. We then had a tour of the surrounding village by an African named Sam, which was his family land. We visited his family and saw his livestock, fruit trees, home, children, and even family cemetery along the way.

We had a lot of fun stomping on a mixture of mud clay, sand, water, and hay to mix it into a thick paste, which was used as mortar for the walls of bricks, which were made out of the same material. However different brings of just dirt and cement were used for the external walls of the buildings, and even earth bricks, which included manure as an ingredient, were used for walls on the interior. So I stomped away and had so much fun mixing up the mud and working with the other Ugandans. I also helped sculpt a little with some mud, creating trees on the interior walls of some buildings, to create a natural setting indoors. I really felt a connection to the earth, to mother earth with my hands and feet in the red, fertile soil. I felt connected to my ancestors from long ago, from our place of origin in Africa.

It was really incredible to realize that all the work we took part in, all the people helping, all the buildings in construction, and the entire birthing center in itself, all happened because of the funds we raised. Otherwise it would not have been there, only the land as it was before. Now mothers will be able to have the maternal care they need to give birth to healthy babies, to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, to provide real, healthy medical care to women, who, even though they could get it free at the hospital, the hospital has scary and unsafe practices, so people fear going there. Women will not be able to go free to the birthing center, but they will at a much smaller cost than other birthing centers in the area. It was thrilling to be a part of this work, to have my hands and feet in the mud, to work with the locals, to meet with the men and women that believed in this work, and to really feel a part of the entire process, to see all the hard work, all the funds, all the determination manifest into something beautiful and wonderful that will help local women, the community, and ultimately it represents more positive change in the world that would not have happened without all our work as sevas, all our fundraising, our supports, and in the end our passion to serve and make the world a better place. One American dollar goes a very long way in Uganda.

And so the men did yoga! And they were so flexible and incredibly strong, int./adv poses were definitely doable, especially as first timers! I suppose, unlike us in our American lifestyle, they are always moving their bodies, esp. in their laborious work, building, carrying, reaching….. their forward bends were all the way, baby…. They could do crow and jump back to chaturanga…. It was incredible and they really had a good time. It made me realize how much we neglect our bodies in the United States, how separated we are from our bodies and how unfit our bodies our. The disconnect is incredible, and how many loathe their own bodies in America is very sad, too. There is definitely a lot we can learn from Africans. I realized today that we as Americans are the ones that are clueless. In Africa they live so simply. Even building today, the materials were all from the Earth, and the structures were really nice! So simple, so connected to the planet, to nature….. And we in America have become so disconnected, it’s no wonder we can shift to a more environmentally friendly way of life, because we have forgotten how to do it! We have a lot to learn, or should I say relearn.

Tonight we went back for delicious food and a bonfire of music and dancing…today as a whole I will totally in my element, totally primal, dancing to drums on the motherland of Africa. Digging in the Earth with my bare hands, and stomping feet (with the cuts to prove it from the rocks). The HIV+ women from the other Shanti site was present and we had a dancing frenzy. Suzanne of OTM played the drums, and the kids helped her, as we danced. Everyone was having a great time together celebrating life. We sang “See with my eyes, sing with my voice, open my heart to see the beauty of the world” which Suzanne created just the night before.

The children had such glowing spirits and were very excited to play with us, hold hands, and goof around, acting silly to the cameras and then seeing their pictures on the camera screens. But they were so poor, wearing shirts full of holes, rips and tears. We felt guilty eating dinner since it was only for us as guests and no one else. I ended up at least sharing a plate with a friend to save some for those who would really need it. I learned later, and would have done so or at least would have gone back for “seconds” or “thirds” for this reason, but my roommate and another friend gave their food to two of the children, and they devoured it, eating quickly with their hands. We could have each gotten several plates for them to feed from. Some had swollen bellies from malnutrition, these beautiful children with bright spirits, full of laughter and fun, not knowing any better than their current life…… we could make such a difference.