Byee Muzungu

That's what the kids chant at us as we walk down the street here. There is even a little dance that one kid adds to go with the words. It's fun here to get to wave at the children when walking down the streets. I feel as if I shouldn't make it too much of a habit thought because it may be construed as creepy once I get home.

We've been up to lots of fun things here. Projects are really picking up this week. I helped to run a profitable (albeit barely so) pancake/hand washing stand today in the market. We sold out of batter in less than two hours and made over 80 pancakes.

I also felt oddly accomplished last night when I succeeded to terminate a spider I discovered in the shower. Washing it down the drain at a distant with the shower head was much safer than my failed attempt to kill the last one with a soap holder. It also made me feel a little better about how much I was scared by the baby gecko that ran across the bathroom floor.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I know I've been slacking with the posting, but I said I would have pictures soon and by golly here they are:

View from across the street:

Bela Bulungi!

Thankful

Since I have been here I have realized how easy I have it at home. Our standards of comfort and cleanliness are so off par to what I have become accumstomed to here in just over a week.

For instance at home I freak out when large insects make their way into my room.

Here I am just grateful that I have a mosquito net so said bug cannot land on my face while I sleep. Also I am glad there are geikos running about the house to eat the mosquitos.

At home, getting a hamburger is commonplace. Here it is the stuff dreams are made of!

Having running water indoors is so great I rarely think about the fact that it is all cold.

Showering every other day is really more than enough as long as I wipe my feet off good before going to bed at night.

Last night we had a chocolate cake, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

On another note, I reached a major cultural milestone yesterday. I successfully rode a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) from town to our house like a lady (ie sidesaddle) with a rather large cake in my lap--in a skirt no less! I was extremely proud of myself.

Oh, and we are now living the high life in our house with a table and wait for it . . .

a couch . . .

um matresses stacked on top of each other in the living room. It is fantastic.

More pictures soon.

Pictures

See . . . I said I would post them soon.

Oh, and if you're dying for more (and I know you are) go here.

Carrying water is much harder than I ever imagined. Especially when it is uphill on the way back. Being muddy is a perpetual state of being here. This week we have been mostly going to meetings, organizing, and planning, but there are exciting things soon to come.

Time at the internet cafe runs out far too quickly.

I have planted a field, made cement, fetched water, hauled mud, and haggled over the price of a pineapple at the market.

Rest assured that I will not starve here because Nutella is readily available in the market!

And I ate a grasshopper yesterday . . . that really happened! I am disgusted with myself.

Pictures soon . . .

Here

in uganda

safe.

it's hot here

i slept under a mosquito net last night.

at least there's indoor plumbing

more later

Return

I'm home.

I'm dirty.

I'm exhausted.

Am I going to pack tonight?

Probably not.

Will I shower tonight?

Not likely.

Did I wear sunscreen this weekend?

Yes.

Am I sun burnt?

Yes.

Did I wear bug spray?

Yes.

Do I have a large bug bite on my neck?

Yes.

Did I hurt myself rafting on class 3 rapids?

No.

Did I make myself bleed/rip a couple layers of epidermis off my finger while rolling up my sleeping bag?

Yes.

What a weekend!

Laziness and River Rafting

I say this in the most humble way possible, I am an awesome river rafter!

I'm pretty much a pro!

Hey remember when I used to have bad teeth?

For the full caption of this picture go here. But to sum it all up, I am familiar with Olympic Class V Rapids.

Yeah, seriously.

I'm leaving to go tomorrow to go rafting on Kings River. It's been awhile since I've been so I'm pretty excited to go camping and rafting

So I finished everything for work today. I made my last trip to the office, emailed my recommendations, deposited my checks, etc etc.

I had all these wonderful glorious plans to go home, eat a quick lunch and then really buckle down and clean and pack.

But then I realized I had absolutely no energy. So I took a nap. Then I woke up. But then I fell back asleep again. It was just one of those times when you know you should be doing something but you are much too tired to really care. Holding my eyes open was more of an effort than I could manage so how was I supposed to scrub, sweep, mop, and dust my house into submission? How?!

But on the good side, I did eventually muster up just enough energy to get in a short work out and do the dishes. After a shower I hit the couch again.

And here I sit.

But to prove I haven't been completely wasting my life away here are some new songs I really love:

See, I haven't been wasting my life away completely!