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!!