Aaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!

Rode on a boda boda today. It was terrifying!

So...

Before I rode the motorcycle of death(with no helmet, that has to be illegal) Hillary and I walked into town this afternoon, did some shopping, etc. This place is so devestating, yet so very fascinating at the same time. Outside and inside of town there are buildings that were either burned or bombed and nothing remains but the brick exterior, I'm guess these are left over from the rein of Idi Amin. Everywhere there are reminders of tradegy. There are soldiers standing guard around the shops and on Main St. watching for thieves. There are children who walk the streets asking for money or working for barely anything. Even the adults only make between $1 and $10.00 a day, on a usual day. There are traffic attendants who work to collect parking fees, for about 20 cents each. The boda boda men usally only make about 30-50 cents for a short town ride, maybe a few dollars, if they are lucky. Groceries are fairly expensive here for them, but dude, talk about cheap compared to the USA. Gas here is about $7.00 a gallon.

In spite of all their hardships and difficulties and strife that these people are born into, most of them are fairly happy in their own way. They have made the choice to be joyful. They find a reason to smile.

The staff here at the orphanage is so great! All of the mamas(the Ugandan women employed here) are so very nice and most of them speak pretty good English. They are always asking me if it is summer or winter at home. And a few of them understand that we have a fall and then they ask me if it's fall at my house. And I don't know whether to just smile and say yes or to actually take the time to explain that we don't have much of a fall in Texas and that there isn't any snow falling there.

Okay, I have so much more I could say, but, as the great BAH once said...Hunger gets what Hunger wants. Toodles!

Oh and Alicia-I have been informed (by a google-master) that those random purple thingies are "Globe Amaranths". Just so you know...but I prefer random purple thingies, don't you?

Snaps

I want to post more pictures!!! But blogspot is possessed. Grrr.......

Ok, mom...here you go

And just so you know mom, you can tell everyone who kept saying there would be bugs the size of my hand and giant spiders and all of that ridiculous nonsense, the only bugs here are flies and mosquitos.

This is the view from the veranda just off the bedroom...there is no airconditioning! Oh and that's Lake Victoria in the background...



This is Isaac, one of the children in my group....:)

And Mebra...isn't she precious?

And this is Tom. As soon as he saw me Wednesday morning, he marched right up to me, yelled,"A new Auntie!", Stuck his hand out to shake mine and to introduce himself,lol....
Random purple thingies...

This isn't all...and blogspot is being annoying...will post more as I go,but I'm too tired to do it tonight.TTYL

Ugggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh...

Jet Lag.

Want to learn how to drive? Don't do it here.

Ok, so I rode into town today with Judy the director here, and I seriously thought I was going to die. Not only does everyone here drive on the wrong side of the road, there are no traffic laws whatsoever, and no parking lots, so everyone simply parks on the side of the street, and no stoplights or anything. On top of that there are bicycles and motorcycles(both called "boda bodas") weaving constantly in and out of traffic. It was insane...

I'm here! And alive!

Or I will be once the jet lag completely wears off. So the flight was horrendously long, I am dreading the 21 hours home, it's just awful. But I ended up on a plane full of missionaries,lol, so there certainly wasn't any fear of strangers.
I can't believe I'm really here. After months of talking about it, those painful shots, shopping and packing, I'm actually here. I got here about midnight(Ugandan Time) and after doing a few things, I fell into bed and slept until I woke up when the sun was up and it sounded like a million birds singing. I then realized it was only 6 am and that the sun rises REALLY early here. It's "winter" here and about 85 degrees. Everything is so very very green. I haven't really eaten anything but 2 granola bars since about 5:00 Monday afternoon. I just kept getting sick when I tried to eat. So note to everyone who wants to lose weight-simply board a really long flight with gross airplane food. I guaruntee results.
Thank you so very very very much to everyone who has supported me through the process of getting here, you have all been so very wonderful. Oh and Russ-you were right...I did find the bag very usefull. Like immediately useful. Katie, those are precious. I keep assuming I can get on and chat with everyone, but then I realize it's 2 am at hoome and no one wants to be on the internet at the time...lol
I'll upload some pictures later!
Tay

Guess what...?

Five and a half days!