Africa Adventure: First week in Africa

Oliotiya friends and Family!

Holy cow! I’ve been in Africa for 6 days now and I can’t believe how much has happened thus far. First off, it was quite an adventure actually getting to Africa. I was supposed to arrive in country on Friday, but I ended up getting there on Saturday. To make a long story short I waited a long long time in the London airport just for them to tell me one of the engines on my plane wasn’t working. So by 4:00 in the morning (my flight was supposed to leave at 9 that night) they fed us and put us up in a hotel nearby. When I finally got to Africa, it was like a dream. I had to keep reminding myself that I was really in Africa!! Uganda is very green, humid, and hot. There aren’t any animals roaming around other than chickens and cows. Unfortunately the people don’t shower very often so you can figure what it smells like here. There are little African children everywhere and they absolutely love us. Everyone here call us Mzungus, which means white person. When we walk down the street, the children will yell and point “Mzungu Mzungu!” and run over and latch onto our arms. The first week has been quite difficult in the sense that our living conditions have not been very ideal. Our house wasn’t even close to being finished when we arrived. It wasn’t furnished and none of the appliances worked. Slowly but surely, we got a table, chairs for all 15 of us, running water, and lights to see at night. Every month apparently, the water shuts off for 3 days here. Yep, it was definitely this week. We weren’t able to flush the toilets for a couple of days and if we were lucky we could take a bucket shower. We just got a refrigerator last night, so I’m really excited about that! No more flies! Our cook is really good. The staples are rice, beans, and matoke, Matoke consists of mashed plantains. I’ve enjoyed all the food that has been prepared thus far. I will admit that I’m not a fan of the grasshoppers though…. Church on Sunday was such a blessing. It’s definitely something \i need to have consistency in my life. The church is run exactly the same everytwhere you go; even in Africa. I went to the young women’s class and participated in their lesson about family history. I’m giving a lesson about traditions this coming Sunday. We’ve gone out to neighboring villages to build two adobe stoves so far. The stoves are such a blessing to these people. They go from cooking beans in 3 hours to cooking beans in 30 minutes! Yesterday we visited the hospital. I was surprised to find that they’re pretty organized, but it was extremely dirty. Next week I’m going to start shadowing some surgeries and help during labor and delivery in the maternity ward. My physical therapy project is still in the planning process, but I hope to start that next week as well. I don’t know how often I can add pictures due to viruses on the computers, but I will try! Please comment on my posts if you want me to answer questions!

To my MSers I miss you and I love you and I hope everyone is doing well!!

Until next time my murungos.