When the truth is, I miss you.

So here I am, sitting at Flavours, drinking iced coffee, and listening to Coldplay...sounds normal, except for the fact that I'm in Uganda.

These last few days have been...well, let me just start.

On Friday, Rachel and I went to visit one of the women in Walukuba, Christine. Her baby, Randy, peed on me, or su-su'd. And then pooped on Rachel. That was gross, but we weren't too upset, Randy is only about a month old and amazingly adorable. Christine just laughed. Love her. I love how laid back Africans are about EVERYTHING.

On Saturday morning I went to the market and then piki'd home with Becca, and on the way back to Magwa, something big and black landed on my ankle and stung me. No idea what it was but it was painful. To say the least. Obviously it wasn't poisoness, because I'm sitting here typing. haha

On Sunday we went to The Nile River Resort and as we were sitting by the pool, we saw some monkey's in a tree close by...there were a ton of them and they weren't shy and got really close...I love it there! I think it's where I'll go for my birthday. :)

Yesterday Andrew stopped by to say hello on his way home from the last day of school (it's their Summer break right now)...I ended up piercing his ear. And Alex videotaped. It was a lot of fun and he didn't flinch. haha

Later on Adam, Alex and I went to visit translator Betty at her home in Walukuba West, where we watched SWAT and drank a ton of Coke. Afterwards her son and the guys wanted to play basketball at the Mormon temple up the road...so we walked there, and ran into Andrew on the way. I decided that instead of playing with them and getting my butt kicked, I would just hang out with all the little school kids there. They kept calling Adam, "Jesus". No idea why. And then all the little school kids threw a bat in my hair. I handled it pretty well, according to Adam and Alex, which means I actually did. Go me. It took me a second to realize it had stayed in my hair and then I just kind of shook it out, even though inside I was completely disgusted. It's all good...so I told Betty about it afterward when I came home and made some Nutella and PB toast, and was sitting on the counter eating it while Betty did the dishes...she said, "Oh, it was an accident?" and I told her it wasn't. "But Auntie, why?"...I told her it was because they were little stinkers. But she didn't get it. I tried to explain, but the only way she could understand was that they were stubborn, which is their word for it here I guess you could say. There are those who are stubborn, and those who are humble. And here I am called humble, and people like Kate (whom I love!), for example, who is outgoing, are called stubborn. It's not neccesarily a bad thing, just the opposite of "humble" I guess.

Today we went over what each of us it contributing to our Thanksgiving dinner next Thursday...I am waaaaay too excited! You are a vegetarian when you live here, and that's totally okay with me since I don't really eat meat anyway, but you hardly get "real" food here. So we're all gonna go hunting around town to see what we can scrape up...one of many things I won't take for granted once I get home to the US of A, is the ability to walk in ANY store and pick up whatever it is you're looking for. And know that it's not infested with worms or who-knows-what-else. And know that you're paying the same price as the next person, no matter what color your skin is. Another thing I won't take for granted is the "luxury" of walking past every guy I see and not having to keepy my guard up, or expect them to touch me in some way. It gets really annoying here.

A little bit ago I was next door at this shop, where Angelo (a really famous artist here) works and has his "studio", which is this little courtyard in the back of the building...and I ordered this painting that is one of his recent works, and the one I had been eyeballing forever...it's gonna cost me a bit, but it's totally worth it. And it's an original, and I know even a Ugandan would pay the same. I am so excited to have it finished before I leave!

At night we have been going "Hopper Hunting"...and we just slip on some shoes, throw on a hoodie (we're so use to the climate here now, that at night we get cold) and walk down Magwa a-ways while watching the heat lightning and listening to the crickets until we reach the random street lights and run around and try to catch them and scream if they fly into our heads or land on us. Basically it's amazing good fun. And once we get home, we will let them go, or give them to Betty to fry up and eat. They're Kymbie's fave.

So I discovered that all this time I have been calling women, "Miabo" it's actually "Niabo". Go me.

Here the pedestrians don't have the right of way, so it's completely up to you not to get hit. Plus there are no traffic rules. So everytime you go to town and walk around, or trust some random guy on a boda who may or may not have any experience driving the thing, it's a risk. But I just like to call it adventurous. Mostly it doesn't even cross my mind but sometimes it freaks me out. haha

Have I mentioned I love it here?



Me and Anita at Santa's in Walukuba