Wrapping Up

Holy cow I never blogged. I am so sorry avid blog readers. (All 3 of you) The internet, as you can probably imagine, is not so good here in Africa and for some reason Blogger is particularly bad. When I get home I'll blog about some highlights!

Today we have been packing up the house and cleaning! It is crazy I leave to go home in 2 days! My time here flew right by! It's been an excellent adventure here and I have loved every minute. Even crashing on a boda, (I'm fine don't worry, just some scraps) taxi rides, and the many hours of traveling.

This past weekend I went rafting on the Nile! It was scarier than I anticipated but so awesome! I loved it! I'll post pictures up when I can.

A lot of amazing things have happened here that I have been blessed to be a part of. My favorite thing was this past week we had an Eye Camp at the Health Clinic up in the mountains. It was so cool! I tested people vision and it was really fun to just be able to interact with the people. There is a school up by the Clinic so we get to play with the kids and that was probably my favorite part. They brought out their drums and this awesome Xylophone they made out of wood and started dancing! They pulled all us Mzungus to get us to dance. Oh it was so fun!

There are a couple stories that go along with the Eye Camp that I'll post about later! Really amazing things happen in Africa! Thank you to all that have donated and supported me! This experience is truly a once in the lifetime experience and I feel so incredibly blessed to have been able to have it.

Smiling Faces

Before I came to Africa I was promised multiple times that even though there may be a language barrier that people would feel my love just by my being there. What a wonderful promise huh? So with that promise I have been looking for ways that that promise has come true, and boy has it.

My favorite thing about Uganda is this- being anywhere in public and seeing people staring at me with a kind of confused look, then I flash them my expensive smile (thanks Dad, you were right, worth every penny) and sometimes slowly, you see a smile take over their previously confused face.

If the most that I can do while I'm here is put a couple smiles on peoples faces that is fine by me. It's the best feeling ever, try it! Not only will it make the person you smiled at happy, it will make you ever-so-happy as well.

Loving life here in Uganda. Thanks for your support, and smile a someone today, ok?

Here are some of my favorite smiles so far-

All in a Days Work

These past 2 days I got to help build a school out of mud! It was an exhausting yet totally rewarding experience.

We got to the school and it was just a structure made out of wood. There were men mixing mud with their feet. They began making little mud pies for us to start filling in the walls. They underestimated how much mud we could carry. They all thought us Mzungus didn't know how to work and that we weren't very strong. But we showed them.

We just took piles of mud and plopped them right into the walls. to cover some of the wood we would take a handful and just throw it at the wood. It was the best part. So satisfying to hear the PLOP and have it stick in the exact place you wanted it to. So fun! 

The men that were mixing the mud were so nice and such hard workers! For some reason they would always make the mud piles smaller just for me and gently place them in my hands as if trying hard not to hurt me. What a kind gesture. 

Erin and I really bonded well passing mud in our assembly line. We were giggling so much I'm such we hurt more than helped the line by slowing it down and dropping lots of mud. Sorry team..

Such a fun yet exhausting couple days. The school looks great and the kids came and helped yesterday and we were so amazed at how helpful they were! They were so excited for their new school! 

Yea, Mzungus can be hard workers too! 

What an exciting two days. Exhausting, but so exciting. I love Uganda. 

Living Accomadations

So my Dad was walking me a bunch of questions about my living situation. So here are the answers to those questions.

Do we have air conditioning?
In Africa Dad? No!

Do we need air conditioning?
Not really. There is nice air flow through the house. Sometimes it gets hot at night, like I have a sheet as a blanket, but it's not terrible.

Do we all use one bathroom?
We have 3 bathrooms for 20 people. About 9 people use my bathroom. It's not really bad because we don't shower very often..haha

Do we have a kitchen?
Yes we have a kitchen. We have a cook named Sam that makes us dinner. So far everything has been delicious!

Do we have a TV?
No. We have our laptops and such and we have Wifi. Which is such a blessing.

Those are the questions! Tomorrow we are hiking Sipi Falls and it's supposed to be beautiful! I am so excited! Most recent exciting news is that there is a place in town that sells movies for a dollar. Like any movie you can get for ONE DOLLAR. I got 7 movies today. So excited.

The Pearl of Africa

Today was an amazing day but it also was exhausting!

We woke up early to go to the Health Clinic and getting there was quite the experience. First we took Bodas (motorcycles, that's a whole other blog post) over to a gas station and there we got in a taxi. If you thought the taxis in NY were bad you have no idea. These taxis are 16 passenger vans but do they just put 16 people in them? HEAVENS NO! They stuff at least 22 people in at once. At one point some Ugandan man was basically sitting on my lap. It was ridiculous. I wish a picture could have captured the madness. But it was far too cramped to even get out my camera. It was an hour ride in those crazy taxis.

The Clinic serves a bunch of little mountain towns and so to get to the clinic you have to hike for about an hour. It was so hard. My legs were already wicked sore from running yesterday and just traveling and whatnot that it was really tough. And it was basically an hour hike all up a very steep hill. The views were absolutely gorgeous. I wish that the cameras could have captured the beauty of the lush rolling hills dotted with villages. It was incredible.

We finally get to the Clinic and there is a school right next to it and all the kids came and greeted us. "Hello, how are you?" They were adorable. So kind and so polite. Love those kids. 

The Clinic is atop this mountain with absolutely gorgeous views all around. The people that work there are so so so kind and grateful for us to be there. They kept saying "God bless you," "Welcome to Uganda, you are most welcome," "This is now your home too" Such amazing people. They gave us a great tour and the clinic is small but amazing. So much good being done here! We helped make visual aids about basic health care things. 

One of the workers that lives close by made us lunch and it was delicious. It was Motokae (smashed plantains) and Posho (basically flour and water) with some beans and cabbage to put over top of it and we ate with our hands and it was wonderful. So delicious.

After that a little cute boy held my hand to walk me up the hill back to the clinic. So adorable.

After that we watched some of our team members teach the workers in the clinic CPR and how to take vitals. It was so fun to watch them as they learned. They were so eager and willing to learn. It was great.

After that we started to head back and instead if walking down we got a boda and it was so terrifying. Down steep hills and over little wooden bridges. Luckily we had a great driver. Then another crazy taxi ride and we finally got home.

I was so stinkin dirty and gross but only had enough time to rinse off before we went to a couple missionaries home for dinner! They live like right around the corner from us and they are adorable and their food they fed us was delicious. He gave us all sorts of advice from reading the Book of Mormon to marriage to saving money. Thank you kind sir. 

Overall today was a great day. Totally tired but totally loving this beautiful country. It truly is the gem if Africa.

Finally Made It!

I MADE IT! I'm in Uganda. Currently sitting on my bund. Top bunk to be exact. Let me just start by saying this is unreal. I still don't believe that I'm actually here. Maybe it's the jet lag and exhaustion but this is ridiculous.

Here is the run down of my travels-

I woke up Sunday morning super early remembering that I needed to at least buy the next Harry Potter book to prepare for my travels. Bought the next two books and then went back to sleep. Then I woke up for real and got my things together said a prayer with my family and was off to the airport! I took my Malaria pill when I got to the airport on an empty stomach and quickly realized that was a huge mistake. I was seriously going to throw up in line waiting to check in. Luckily my mom came to the rescue and gave me some food and I was fine again.

Africa lesson #1: Never take Malaria pills on an empty stomach.

I said good-bye to my parents and headed for my gate. At my gate I met my travel buddies and soon we boarded the plane for our 14 hour flight to Ethiopia. I took a Zzquil and feel asleep quickly. I slept most the way but also squeezed in some reading, a movie and some TV shows. They fed us 3 pretty good meals and drinks periodically. I was lucky enough to have a window seat too!

The best part of the flight was when we landed and the whole plane started to clap. It was so wonderful. We got off the plane so grateful to be able to stand up and walk around. We had about a 3 hour lay-over and we played some games, slept a little, and just kinda hung out.

Our next flight was to Entebbe, Uganda and it was a short 2 hour flight. I sat down and fell immediately asleep and stayed asleep for pretty much the whole flight. We landed in Uganda and took some must have tourist pictures (not on my camera..sorry) and went to get our visas. I was a little nervous just because I was told they could be picky about our money but there were no issues at all! We got our luggage and headed off to meet our Country Director. We turned the corner and there was a million people waiting to passengers with signs. We must have looked like lost puppies because almost immediately an airport workmen lead us to our director. Maybe because we were the only "Muzungus." (Muzungus is what all the locals call us, it means white people.)

After we met our director we loaded in a van and started our 6 hours drive to our house. Once again I slept most the way but also just stared out the window awestruck that I was actually in Uganda. I was loving the land, the culture, the people, and there was even a beautiful sunset! Africa is gorgeous and I'm loving it already.

Time for bed now, tomorrow will be my first real day here and so far I know that I'm going on a run early and then going to paint a school. Should be an exciting day!

Bags are packed!

So like I leave for UGANDA tomorrow. Tomorrow. I can't believe it! Like really, it does not feel real. I'm hoping the 23 hours of travel that span from tomorrow and into the next day make it real for me. So much preparation, and I sure hope I don't forget anything. Is this real life??

My big to do list..

My mother who insisted on bug spraying my clothes

In the process of packing..