Prepare Yourself for the Lengthiness

I started drinking coffee when I was in Germany. Why, I don't know. I would drink coffee and talk to Hannes while he ate breakfast and then I began doing it everyday. Well I have now gone about a week and half without caffeine. Today I felt it necessary to drink a cappuccino at 3pm. Let's just say bad move. Not only did it give me the worst shakes of my life all afternoon, but I am not awake after midnight because I thought of so many things I wanted to say. If you ever need your house cleaned, just invite me over early for coffee.

So I will give you a few random facts about Uganda that I learned after quizzing Patrick (one of our EAC Ugandan volunteers) tonight. Uganda has 30 million people. That is more than all of Australia combined. I could be wrong, but I think they have about 20 million. Kampala, where I am, has 2 million people. This explains why everyday feels like there must be a big event taking place. 1 out of 10 people in Uganda is infected with HIV/AIDS. I forgot to ask how many kids are orphaned due to HIV related deaths, but I will find that out.

The food here is not what I expected. Put it this way, the 12 meals that were consumed between the Houston airport, Amsterdam and 3 plane rides was quite unnecessary. I feared eating rice and beans everyday for the next month. That fear quickly vanished when I walked in the supermarket the first day to see3 flavors of Doritos. However, I am going to try to control my eating habits because I feel a little bad that what I eat in one day is probably more than a Ugandan family eats in a week. I have had a few Ugandan meals and a few westernized meals. Chapati is like a pancake/crepe type thing that replaces tortillas. Also, Pea Samosas which are little fried bundles of joy. Apparently they make all kinds, but the place we went the other night only had pea stuffed in some form of fried bread. Of course I immediately said no for fear of nasty little green peas. I was assured that they were not like that and that I would enjoy it. Well hence the fact that I described them as little bundles of joy, I most definitely enjoyed them and look forward to the next 100 times I will eat them before leaving.

Our house is nicer than the typical Ugandan home. Our house is surrounded by a huge stone wall and there is barbed wire on top. We have a gate keeper, named Friday, who is always around to open the doors for our van and kind of keeps an eye out. In all honesty, I feel 10 times safer here than I do in the US. I have felt that way everywhere I have ever traveled. There are crazy people and crime everywhere, but whoever says the United States is safest is far from correct. I don't have the constant fear that someone may mug me in broad day light or pull a gun on me in the grocery store parking lot. Don't get me wrong, there is crime here, but as long as you are smart about your actions you will be ok. Anyways, our house has running water and electricity. We boil all of our water each morning before filling jugs for the freezer. We hand wash all of our dishes and buy groceries for the day on that day, not for the week. We have no air condition, but we don't need it. We leave the windows and doors open. We do lose power on occasion, but we have lanterns that will suffice. We hand wash our clothes, which I will attempt to do tomorrow. No dryer, which I learned to love in Germany and we get to hang everything on lines in the yard. All the kids here are raised to be very independent. Kids wash their own laundry, do the dishes, clean the house, etc. This morning we asked our neighbor Jovan why he wasn't at church and his response was he had not finished his laundry. Kids will be late for school or anything if they don't get their chores done. My poor kids will hate me, but they will be doing the same thing!

I really like the girls that are here with me, Hannah and Meredith. My one fear upon arrival was what the people would be like I would around every day. I am SO thankful that I really like them. Over the weekend we spent a lot of time around each other and talked and I really got to know them much better. I also need to say that I did not create this really snazzy background, Meredith did. I of course am still not very tech or blog savvy. All 3 of us went for African Tea yesterday and sat around talking for a couple hours. African tea is basically milk, tea and spices like ginger and cinnamon. Very good. Last night we went to a program called 'Prime Time'. I'm not really sure how to describe it other than really terrible music and bad skits. We went because Hannah was asked to sing at it. She blew everyone out of the water. She played the guitar while she sang. She has an incredible voice. We all got in the van afterwards in awe and commenting on how we would buy a cd if she had one. She has been asked to sing at a Bible study tomorrow night so if I can video it I will.

Today Hannah and I went to St. Luke's church with our neighbor Javon. Javon is 14 and probably one of the funniest little kids. He is always smiling and has this hysterical little giggle. Tonight I asked him if he had a girlfriend and he said yea. When I asked who she was he pointed to me and said you and did his little giggle. He loves to come hang out here and it is fun to have the little neighborhood kids around. After church Hannah and I went to a little restaurant to spend our $2 lunch allowance. We got a Kabap which was some random meat. I didn't ask because it was good and I knew I might be sick if I knew what it was. It took forever to get our food though because french fries (chips) come with it and they actually peel, chop and cook the fries, no frozen bagged fries.

This afternoon Hannah and I went downtown to the craft market and the '1000 Cups' Coffee shop. The craft markets are INCREDIBLE. Hannah kept talking about the bazillions of things she had bought and I was thinking hmm since I am not a souvenir shopper. She bought a ridiculous amount of these little 'batiqs' for everyone that sent money in to EAC to sponsor her on her trip, which was extremely thoughtful. I couldn't blame her after I had been. They are these cool little painted canvas squares, African themed of course. I think I had serious anxiety because there was so much I wanted. They have tons of art work, jewelry, wooden bowls, handmade drums, sandals, clothes, you name it. I came home with tons of gifts and quality purchases. I love buying gifts and really go overboard. I only took a little money, but plan on going back to purchase some more gifts and art. I just made the comment to my mom yesterday that I didn't think I would be spending much money because everything is so cheap. I had to tell her today that I now retract that statement. This is the first time since I made homemade gifts for my family that I know what I am getting my dad. Very exciting! Christmas is so easy this year. Although, it will be coming December 5th instead of the 25th because I won't be able contain my excitement for 3 weeks after I get home.

I have a whole bulleted list of things not to forget to mention, but I just realized it is extremely late and I will never be able to get up if I don't go to sleep. I will finish up soon. Tomorrow morning we head off to the babies home. I have been told to wear my least favorite clothes because I will be peed on frequently. Heaven forbid the baby wear a diaper. I can only imagine the stories I will have.