FIRST WEEK

GUYS I'M IN AFRICA!! wooooooo i left last tuesday and flew from LAX to London and then had a 5 hour layover where we met up with a bunch more volunteers. then we flew to Kenya and then onto our final flight to UGANDA. longest 3 days of my life. i was seriously so tired and out of it, i honestly had no idea what was going on. we had to drive for like 2 hours and finally got to the house we are staying out. i am sleeping in a room with 10 other girls. triple bunks. its actually kinda fun but also soooo hot at night. the first night i woke up sweating and wide awake and i didnt even have a sheet over me. everything here is extreme poverty. the biggest city we drove through is Kampala which is the capital but it isnt like a big city in America. we ride around on these moped things called boda bodas and the drivers seriously drive so fast and crazy. the first time i rode one i seriously thought "im going to die. this is it!". but for the most part they are pretty fun and get you where you need to go. all the little kids wait outside our gate and yell "BYE MZUNGO!!!" which means white person. they run up to you and attack you basically and the first time that happened i was like ohhhhh no. but they also like to pound firsts together and then we just say "bonga!" and they go with it. the kids in our little village are starting to get used to us but they still love us and wave and call us mzungos! its hilarious. 

so saturday me, elise, taylor, olivia and karli took a taxi to this town called Jinga... yup, pronounced ginga! hehe. but some people had told us it was a really cool place to go to and since we have the weekends off we decided to venture to the land of gingas. just kidding... jinga! so we got there and we were a little sketched out at the place the taxi dropped us so we hopped on bodas and said "take us where mzungos go!" and the driver said "okay, yes i take you!" and that he did! he dropped us right in front of this restaurant and we walked in and there were tons of americans! and this places looked clean and delicious! i honestly dont think i have ever been that excited. kinda sad, we come to africa and get excited to see white people. but it was just like a taste of home a little bit and GOOD food and the meat was safe! ugandan food is basically all beans and potatoes.... this thing called mutoke which is like mashed up cooked bananas. its kinda good but not every night good. i am already sick of it. at that restaurant we met this girl names Caroline and she is from San Francisco but working for a non profit in uganda for 7 months. we started talking to her and she told us allllll the good places to go and helped us out so much! i swear that was a blessing from above at the perfect time. we also talked to these guys from new york that are in the army here training the uganda army. we were all wearing our skirts because that is what we were told we are supposed to wear while we are here and they were making fun of us. they said "what are those? tribal dresses???" we were like oohhhh okay yup they are. so we walked around jinga a little more and saw the nile! we are going to raft the nile one of these weekends though so we didnt really explore it too much. 

yesterday we went to church!!! it is amazing how church is the same no matter where you are. the missionaries there were so cute and there was one who had only been out for 5 days! he had only been here for as long as we had! last night we went to a community meeting in a town called lower muboti which is close to mukono where we had church. we went with Moses, who is this guy that has been a partner with Help for a few years and he is AMAZING. like seriously so smart and passionate about everything he does. he had a scholarship and a family in st george was going to pay for him to come and attend Dixie and stay with them, but the ugandan government wouldnt let him. they said they wanted him to study in uganda, but moses wants to come to america, get a good education and then come back to uganda and do something in the government. he is GOING PLACES and could make a serious difference. so anyway, this meeting we went to was basically all the members of this one community and what we wanted to do was to ask them what they thought the biggest issues in their community are so that we can try to help them with their problems. basically what they came up with were that the main issues are 1. education system 2. the children with disabilities and 3. malaria. It was crazy to be sitting there and actually here first hand from these people what they need and what needs to be fixed. one little boy was sitting in the front row and kept raising his hand with such great ideas. he was so smart. one thing he said was that there are problems in the community with orphans and not enough water. i dont think he was an orphan but it broke my heart to hear this little kids say they arent getting enough food and water. we dont realize how lucky we are in the us. when people say "you better eat that, there are starving kids in africa" ITS TRUE. leettttttttt me tell ya! count your blessings people. 

sorry that was so long and probably really scattered i am rushing!! but i just wanted to give you all a little update!! we are roughin it here, but its worth it! sometimes we are in our little house compound behind a gate and i forget where i am and then walk outside and im like woah! but i love it here and i am learning so much. i forgot what its like to have a real toilet or real shower or real food, or a washer/dryer or makeup or to not have to use hand sanitizer ever 10 seconds. the ugandan people are amazing and this country is beautiful. a lot greener than i expected... sometimes i get a little bit of a tropical feel! i miss everyone back home but it is great here! oh i forgot... i threw up the first morning here. yup. sorry.... gross i know. welcome to africa!!!!! thats all for now! love ya!

                                                 our house in Nakazedde Village, Lugazi:

our little neighbor kids hanging on our fence:

chillen at THE SOURCE CAFE in Jinga:

                                                           such cute little missionaries:

                                                      after the community meeting in mukono: