Here I am called Auntie, Here I am called Mzungu

I'm finally here! In Uganda! After a crazy, intense and exhausting 48 hours of travelling half way across the world! A beautiful nightmare is what I would call it. Flying from Anchorage, to Seattle, to Denver where I met up with Adam and Rachel, to London where we left the airport and ran around the city on the Underground and seeing Big Ben, Parlament, The Eye and then Buckingham Palace from accross the River, to finally arriving in Entebbe! As we were landing, we could see all around...we saw Lake Victoria and the rain forests, the tea fields and the sugar fields...my first impression of Uganda was that it was insanely beautiful, and it made me so happy to finally be here I almost started crying on the plane. I'm sure that the fact I was incredibley exhausted had something to do with that too, though. When we stepped off the plane and were walking to the airport bus, my second impression was that the air here smells like sweat and meat and wet grass. Kind of what I expected, almost. It was super gross but again, super beautiful at the same time. After Rachel, Adam and I found our luggage, we used the bathroom and then headed outside where we met Rachel and Randy Stroud, who are amazing and who are kind of what you would call the directors at The House over here in Uganda. We loaded into this old van and started the long drive "home"...after driving in an insanely hot, sweaty, bumpy, smelly van ride for three hours, through Entebbe and Kampala, we finally arrived in Jinja, our home for the next three months. There aren't really any traffic laws here, every once in a while there will be a speed limit of 50 KPM or so, but that's about it. The traffic in Kampala is completely ridiculous and crazy! But somehow I loved it. All the buildings here are run down and old, a lot of them are made from scrap peices of wood or metal...there were mounds of bricks drying along the road, there were bikes and pikis or bodabodas (motorbikes) everywhere, tea and sugar fields, rain forests, bright pink buildings, billboards and Coke signs, Mirinda (Ugandan Soda) signs, vans full of people, garbage and stray dogs along the street, and the Ugandan Police walking around with their guns and directing traffic. It was marvelous and overwhelming and fantastic. If tour buses would stop along the road, locals would run up to the windows and attempt to sell bottled water, and bananas, plantains or meat on a stick...also newspapers and some kind of cards. Once we got to the house, Randy and Rachel helped us bring our stuff into the house, where we moved into our new rooms. My bed is in the girls room, at the end of the hallway...it's the middle of a triple bunkbed. We have a bunch of shelves and a bathroom, with a shower where you have the hold the shower head yourself, and the hot water isn't really hot. I love it. Our room is rather large with white walls, a red tile floor and two windows. There are mosquito nets on all the beds. I share it with Rachel and a girl named Becca, who is also amazing. Kate is another volunteer here and she stays in the room next to ours and then the guys are down the hall...Adam and then Alex, another volunteer. They're all fantastic. Rachel and Randy took us out for lunch, at a place called Two Friends. They have mainly Indian food, and it was all really good. All I ate was rice and a Coke though because I wasn't all that hungry. We came home and showered, unpacked everything, and then played Catch Phrase for awhile. It was all I could do to keep my eyes open so I headed to bed at about 4pm and slept until 5am when I woke up to pouring rain, thunder and lightening, which stopped after about an hour. Then the roosters started crowing, the dogs started barking and howling, the cars started beeping their horns, I could hear music and people and children. We live directly across from a school called Magwa Primary, where Betty's (the lady who cleans for us and does our laundry and other miscellaneous things and is basically the sweetest most lovely lady you will ever meet) younger sister goes to school. Betty has a little boy named Kimbi, he's adorable and runs around half naked. Betty has two chickens that were given to her as a gift and they run around the yard...there's a tree with a tire swing that's broken right now though. I drank some peppermint tea and ate some scones this morning and later today we are headed around town where Randy is going to show us everything, where to exchange money, get on the internet at the cafe, eat, buy food and get our cell phones. This afternoon there is a Suubi Meeting with the women, to buy their necklaces...I'm so excited! So this is where I will end my post...it's gotten rather long and even though I'm sure it was a lot for you to take in and read, what I have written is not even half of what I have already experienced here. It's all very overwhelming, but simple at the same time, and will take a lot to get use to. I am completely in love with this place though...right now I feel like I will never want to leave. Even if it is dirty and busy, it's also lovely and fantastic and the people are basically wonderful. Even if they stare at you for being white! ;) I will try to post pictures next time...with love, Emily