Did it really take all day? How I got BRAIDS

Hey people. So this past Saturday I went to a salon in Mbale just down the road from where we live with our cook Mercy and three team members including my cousin Jen. I will say it right now......... it was an experience. We all got braids with extensions and lets just say that our hair all ended up a LOT longer than we thought and it took a LOT longer than we thought too. Like 5 hours longer than we thought. I wish I was kidding, but I am not!! Here is them starting:

Probably about three hours later it looked like this:And then probably 5 and half more hours later it looked like this:


Yeah, that's right, it took NINE HOURS to end up with hair like this:

It was a very cultural experience to see how the salons work here. Also, to know that their concept of time is a lot different from our concept of time. Our cook told us it would only take 4 hours! We had NO idea we would be there pretty much all day. It was ridiculous! And sadly, I had to sit on the concrete floor on a mat to get this done... after 6 hours on the floor I seriously wanted to die. I was scheming the negative blog post I would write about the experience and how all that came of it was me looking like I had dreds. I was wishing I could just take it all back because:

A. My butt was about to fall off
B. I was sweating buckets
C. My head had never been yanked at so much. I seriously had to grit my teeth to get through that pain.
D. I was starving and
E. MY BUTT WAS ABOUT TO FALL OFF!

Kudos to the African women that get this done all the time!! The lady that was doing my hair made me sit on the ground so that she didn't have to stand up, which I understand b/c she was doing strenuous work... but seriously after 6 hours I basically told her that I had to sit in a chair. And let me tell you... once I was in the plastic chair it was like a different experience all together. I was so happy! I have never been so happy! My mood PLUMMETED! That might sound retarded, but my bum was in serious pain. Haha, so now, I have long long braids and it is great. Sadly none of the pictures show how long it is... but lets just say it is a little longer than my hair was before I got it cut a couple months back. The beauty too is that it can be styled a million different ways! I have never had so much hair in my life and sometimes I feel like I have a mop on my head and would really like to yank it off. But hey, it is fun, and now I am more African and all my team members kept telling me how greatly I am pulling the look off so that is good! Here's to having long hair again!

Observing flies

Again, NOTE: I just did two posts in a row. Be sure to see both!

This post may be a little retarded, but I just have to admit something....

Life in Uganda is much more simple than life in America. I get excited about being out at night. Yeah, walking around at night and taking a boda home in the dark is the highlight of my week every friday night. Get the point? It's just because the fact of being in Uganda is SO COOL in and of itself. Anyway, I have a lot more time on my hands now because we often have to be IN before dark (except for friday and saturday nights usually, hence, the excitement). This means I have time to read, write in my journal, and yes........ observe flies. They are EVERYWHERE so it is not hard to miss them. I have noticed something about flies that I never noticed in America... they often lift up their front legs and rub them together almost as if they are cleaning themselves with the air or being mischievious... they also do it with their back legs too. I find it so funny and entertaining.......... is that so retarded?! Probably :) So if you can, observe a fly sometime. Although, I know there is not much spare time in fast-paced America.

The art of boda boda riding

The most common mode of transport in Uganda is riding on a boda boda. This is similar to a motorcycle in America. Now, there are three ways to ride the boda. Let me explain.

First you have onesies. Let me depict:


As you can see, I am riding on the boda by myself with the driver. This is my favorite way to ride the boda because there is more room and I get to ride like a lady, which means sitting with both legs on one side of the boda. If you don't ride like a lady, the people laugh at you and it is very awkward. Hence, I ride like a lady 99% of the time. It is nicer that way too because you get a better view of beautiful Uganda.

Next, you have twosies. I cannot depict this sadly, but it involves my cousin Jen and I riding together. Since we are small, we can still pull off riding lady like this way and I always sit on the back, which means my bum is hitting the metal bar on the back. Not as comfortable, but doable. One day we did this in the rain and here is a picture with our boda driver after - sadly he is SOAKED!
It is also more fun riding in the rain, for obvious reasons.

Last, you have threesies. By this point, you are probably getting my drift. On this occasion Jen, Whitney, and myself rode together on the boda with the driver which sadly REQUIRES sitting like men with one leg on either side of the bike. People laugh, it is awkward, and I am not a fan. But hey - you do what you gotta do sometimes. The nice thing about adding more people is the cost goes down! So Jen and I have been doing a lot more twosies lately.

Moral of the story: boda rides are great. I don't think I will ever get sick of them. It is always a thrill, whether you are doing it in the rain or in the dark and almost skidding to your death.... which yes, did happen to me. Don't worry mom and dad, I survived and did not fall off. Such a trooper, right?!

White Tile

NOTE: I did two posts today so make sure you see/read both!

This post is dedicated to my mom. She has lived in Spain for the past couple years in a little apartment with my dad. In their apartment, they have white tile floors and she says they get so dirty that she has to clean them every single day. I thought this was a little crazy and didn't think it was possible for floors to get THAT dirty every day. Well, our house here in Uganda has white tile floors too and since we've been here we have nightly chores we have to do. All of them somehow involve sweeping and mopping the white tile floors and we do this *don't be shocked* EVERY DAY! And if you can believe it.... they DO get dirty every day! Seriously - it is a good pile of dirt that we clean up everyday. So mom... I now believe you that you had reason to clean those white tile floors everyday!

The things you learn in Uganda...

My new goal

Since I've been in Uganda I have struggled a bit with communicating with the people. In my first interview with my country directors Suzanne and Whitney (whom I love), they suggested that I make a goal to talk to a few people each day for at least a few minutes to work on this. Since I made this goal things have been going much better! Here are the people I have met:

1. Benard. I met him this past Saturday night when we went out to dinner for Whitney's birthday celebration. He is 19 years old and came with the missionaries to meet us at dinner because he was on splits with them. He is preparing for his mission and will hopefully leave around December! He educated me on the school system in Uganda which is similar to America, except that they basically have two extra years of schooling after high school and they have to take exams before they can finish these last two years before going to a university. Benard is in senior 6 (which also has different levels) - kind of complicated, but basically he is almost ready for University. His father is a painter and he has 7 sisters! Crazy! I think we talked for too long though b/c at the end he asked if I had a boyfriend ... haha I will probably start talking to more females in the future :)

2. Elder Omondi. He is from Kenya and has been out for 2 months - although he lied at first and told me he had 12 months. Crazy kid! He told me that in Kenya sometimes if you are at a restaurant and you leave the table people will put bad things in your drinks to make you sick, so you have to be careful and should never leave a table unattended. I told him I probably don't want to go to Kenya anymore and he said "oh no, it's great, it's great" haha. We talked over pizza and since then when I run into him at church and such he calls me pizza. Creative nickname!

3. Mercy. She is our cook and we LOVE her! She makes the best food ever. Jen and I decided to help her with dinner on sunday and we spent about 6 hours making potato wedges and french toast with her. We had to make a lot and our pans were small - we cooked over hot coals and it just took a lot of work - she kept saying "don't burn yourself", and luckily we didn't. She also told us to not cut ourselves, but we nearly chopped off all of our fingers though trying to cut the potatoes - she made it look so easy! Sheesh! It was a great learning experience and now we know how true Ugandans cook outside.

4. Lydia. We met her at church this past Sunday and she is getting baptized this next Sunday! Woohoo! She is so nice and kept telling us how much she would miss us when we leave and that she wanted our contact information. I told her to not worry about that yet - we still have a long time here! We took a picture with her and in relief society, she turned around and told me that I have a really nice digital camera and asked me if I would bring one back for her when I come to Uganda again. Too bad they are a little pricey! Sorry Lydia!

5. Dennis. He is a member of the branch already and sat in front of me during Sunday School. I tried to get him to join us in our row because he was by himself but he said "I am fine, I like to be closer to the front" - what a good man. He attends school and told me that he wants to go to America really badly. We talked about where I am from and where I go to school in America and then he told me he had an Ohio State shirt that he got from a market here in Mbale - pretty cool! A taste of America!

6. Joel. I talked with him yesterday when we went and visited God's Mercy, which is a youth organization that teaches youth how to be woodworkers and barbers so that they have skills and can fight unemployment. He works as a carpenter and has lived in Uganda for most of his life, but goes to school in Kenya. He has also been to Nairobi and hopes to go to America someday, especially Utah! I asked if he lives with family, but he is single! Any takers??

I love the people here - they are so nice and love to share about their lives. I love to learn and feel that I am getting more familiar with the culture through meeting these people!

Sorry for no pictures - the SD slot is not working today. I will have pictures in my upcoming posts. I have some good ones coming so stay tuned! Love you all!

Some more pictures...

These are the mosquito nets we sleep under every night - the ones that burned our eyes so badly the first night!

This is what the villages often look like that we go to - with all the huts and such.

We went to this community with an HIV/AIDS support group and they danced and performed for us. The whole time I could not stop looking at this little black baby I am next to in this photo! Seriously the most precious child I have seen thus far!

I wanted to do more of a legit post about my week, but don't have the time. None of it is way exciting - just learning a lot more about the culture and having a bit of a hard time with communication. I am confident that with time I will get better though! Everything is great and I am excited to start our projects this week!

fun tidbit we learned from our South African friends: worchestershire sauce helps with an upset stomach. two spoonfuls and you're golden :)

Some of my favorite photos so far...

At church with all the kiddies - the two little ones are twins :)

In the market - all these two and three year olds were going crazy shaking my hand and bowing down to me... seriously the most precious thing I have ever seen :)

Oh just holding the chickens that we killed for dinner on Monday night. NBD. This is Africa people! You just step on the wings, pluck the feathers around the throat and cut the head off - blood gushes everywhere. Tasty!

Welcome to Uganda! It is beautiful here and very green as you can tell.

Me and the cutest little boy from an orphanage that we stopped at on our way to Mbale - it was an 8 hour bus ride.

In the Entebbe Airport - posing with our passports because Jen nearly lost hers so we were celebrating!

Eating Fish n Chips in London! Authentic cuisine!

Most of the team in front of Big Ben

Uganda has been great thus far! We have been doing needs assessments and seen some really sad things in the last few days. We visited orphanages, schools, and clinics so far. More details to come later! Love you all!

GREETINGS FROM UGANDA!

The last couple days have been long and CRAZY! Traveling took FOREVER, but I was able to sleep on the two long flights most of the way. I even thoroughly enjoyed the airplane food - I was that hungry. :) On the flight from London to Uganda Jen and I sat across from the CUTEST little black boy and we were already so excited for what was ahead. We kept waving at him and he waved back - so fun. Jen almost lost her passport - that was an adventure for sure. London was a lot of fun!! The architecture there is so so beautiful and we took lots of pictures. Sadly I can't post anything yet because my camera is dead, but I will figure that out and hopefully get some up soon. Jen and I even found hob nobs to buy - although that was funny too because they didn't take US dollars or credit cards and we didn't have any Pounds, but the best part is one of the other team members we were with already started drinking his water he was gonna buy so the man had to let us off the hook and give him American dollars - hahaha. Good times in London for sure!

Getting on our flight from London to Uganda was also an adventure - the Heathrow airport is ridiculous. So many elevators and escalators and secretways we had to take to get to our flight I swear. And my feet were about to FALL OFF so I was so ready to crash on the plane. Once we got to Uganda we were PUMPED! It is so green and beautiful in Entebbe where the airport was. We sat in the airport for a while talking to all of the other volunteers waiting for our country directors. I was so ready to get to Mbale! We finally left on our looooong bus ride around 10 or 11 am maybe. We were on the bus for...oh I don't know.... 8 hours total maybe. And I was seriously sooo jetlagged, it was soooo hard to stay awake, but I stayed awake towards the beginning and saw soooo much of life in Uganda. It was incredible. Absolutely gorgeous, but so sad seeing all the little ones with little clothing and cooking food on the dirt outside their little shacks. The poverty is real and it's hard to see it up close. But the kids are SO HAPPY! We stopped at a little orphanage and they were soooo smiley and calling us Muzungu (white person) ... I got a picture with my favorite little boy and he was smiling so big, but then again so was I! I taught him how to give a real high five and he was loving it. :) Everything is pretty run down and everyone is very very active - almost no one was inside. The traffic is absolutely insane - no rules, no lines, no nothing. People crossing the street in the middle of tons of traffic as well - kinda crazy!!! I got lots of awesome pictures which you will also see at some point. We stopped at a market too and a little restaurant to get food and I got chips (fries) and they came in this HUGE bucket. I did not want that many!!!! Oh man, reality check, I am not in America anymore! It is crazy, but I love it for the most part. We finally got to Mbale and had a pretty decent dinner, although the sausages we ate were pink in the middle - like super pink and in America that means HELLO FOODBORNE ILLNESS. Kinda freaked me out but I was so hungry I didn't even think twice about eating it- and it tasted good so that was good. We set up all our mosquito nets and got ready for bed and everything and then NONE of us could sleep - little did we know ALL of us had burning eyes and noses from too many chemicals in the mosquito nets. HA, kinda funny, so at 4 am we took all of them down and then finally got some sleep from 5-11 so that was good. I thought maybe it had to do with the water and I was the only one, so I was relieved to know everyone was having the same problem. Our country directors told us this morning that that was our initiation (jokingly) so make sure we could survive here in Uganda. Hahaha, pretty funny. Never a dull moment here! We unpacked everything this morning and just took our first boda boda (motorcycle) ride to this little internet cafe - it was so fun! I feel so cool in this foreign place. I am so excited to meet more people and learn more about the culture. I just wish I could communicate with all of you more regularly, but I will write a lot in my journal and have many stories to share when I get back I am sure!!! Kinda crazy that I am here, I can't believe I won't be back in the US for 3 months, but hey - it's an adventure. I hope you are all doing well! Love you all so much!!

And we begin...

My dearest friends and family,

I cannot believe that just in a few hours I will be embarking on this crazy journey to Uganda through HELP International. Stay tuned for posts about my experience while I am there. Thank you to all of you who have made this happen for me!!

THIS TIME FOR AFRICA!

Love all around!