Saturday, May 7, 2011

Arrived to Africa!

ok... so here is what i have seen and been doing the past 24 hours. i honestly feel like I have been here for MONTHS it has taken us FOREVER to get here! It seriously is so crazy here in AFRICA! i still can't comprehend that i'm here. I don't know what day or time it is, all i know that this doesn't seem real at all!

i found my group in london before we boarded the plane.  I honestly slept from the time we got in to the time we got out.  I sat next to a really big lady which was a little bit hard but i zonked out so it didn't matter. she was telling me all about uganda too since she was from there.  She's all "it's muddy... do you know what muddy is?" i'm all "ya" and she's all... "no... i don't think you do!"

We arrived to the airport in kampala and had a 5-6 hour bus ride to Mbale which is where we are staying! haha our bus... i loved it. just imagine.. wow, i can't really compare it to anything... just imagine a big beat up van that squeeks when you drive and bounces around haha our big dodge van was a mercedes compared to this mobile! we stick out SO bad here. i didn't know how white i really am!!! the streets are unreal. they don't have rules and padestrians have to LEAP out of the way or they're doomed! The people here are SO nice tho, and they are SOOO happy. they probably live closer to heaven then we do just because of how humble they are. they would come up to our windows to sell things and try to get any kind of money. they think we are the richest people ever! the little kids yell out "muzugu!" which means white person whenever they see us and wave!  We were stopped in Munoko to get a fridge for our house and the CUTEST little kid was waving to me, i was trying to teach him how to blow a kiss and by the time we left he kept blowing kisses til we pulled away.  The kids are seriously so cute and are the happiest little things i've ever seen. they play in the streets and play soccer a lot here.

Let me tell you about last night...

First of all... we got to our house and it was raining and we don't have power so it was adventurous in the rain with our luggage and mud. haha i loved it. (enrique just turned on here, hahahah i am loving this!!!) but anyway.. haha sorry i am so scatterbrained right now.  We got all unpacked and put up our maquito nets... the sounds of africa at night go like this: wild dogs barking, drums, trucks, singing, beeping.  so i popped in my headphones and was completely out after preparing for hours to not get eaten alive by masquitos.

all of a sudden i hear "AUBREY!..."  i jumped! Whitney was on the bunk across from me and she's all "Do my eyes loook like hitch!?!" she pops her head out of her net and i shine my light on her face, "no, why?"... suddenly i feel this liquid coming out of my ear and she is freaking out!  our country director wakes up and comes in our room to see what was going on, and I guess the pharmacy had told us not to wash our nets... but your supposed to since there is so much chemical stuff on them! so we were all having these allergic reactions! we had taken HOURS to put them up and nail them in too! haha so everyone starts waking up bein like "owww... my eyes!" and at 3am we were having this fiasco! haha one girl was zonked out and didn't budge while the rest of us were being attacked! haha

finally we stripped the nets off and we all went back to bed.  if you only knew what this has been like it is a full on movie. We are soooo lucky tho, we've made some friends with the hotel people so if we ABSOLUTELY need a hot shower we can.  and we live like KINGS here! our compound is completely protected. we have the BEST guard that everyone fights over to have named David... he's awesome. but when we can't see him at night we just have to tell him to smile so we can see his teeth!

We woke up today, had a meeting about safety. we're basically getting settled in! but it's not as roughing it as much as i expected! we have tile floors, flushing toilets, 2 showers, running water! We are living like kings!

we went to an orphanage yesterday, it broke my heart and was really hard to see the little kids, but they are so happy it is unreal! these people are probably a lot happier than most people in the United States and they have nothing. 

haha and let me just tell you about this... today i rode my first BODA BODA! which means taxi.  which means motorcycle.  the money system is so crazy that it's only like 50 cents of american currency to ride to the city.  we made a caravan of white people on these boda boda's.  One girl's broke down so we had a slight problem with not knowing where she was, but they give us all the contact information and we live close by that we will be just fine.

i'm living a complete dream!  i really can't believe i'm here! just barely i had to go pee and so i went to the bathrooms which was a hole in the ground and no doors.  just had whit stand in front of the door and was good to go! 

as far as scenery here, it is SO beautiful! very green, there is a waterfall a little ways away from our house and it is beautiful!

i know there is so much else that has happened but its hard to remember everything.  i've made sure to keep a journal though because i don't want to forget a THING!

i know i've only been gone a week but there have been so many things going on that i feel like i could write a novel. i and have felt the Lord with me this entire trip, i have to be honest in saying this is the scariest thing i've ever done, but i don't ever feel alone. i'm very protected.  My emotions have been a little bit numb.. i'm still waiting for it all to hit me.  it's really hard for me to see people sitting in the streets with no legs, and little kids that look really unhealthy. i just will never be the same after this trip, that's for sure.

my tevas? work like a charm:) and Ang... you packed my waterbottle SO good! hahah i went to get water and one of them had opened a little, and i didn't realize it so when my water was read I gotta little bit scared haha but not to worry!

they eat really weird food here. like goat hair in the soup. haha THIS IS AFRICA! T.I.A. whenever something really weird happens that is unusual we just say "T.I.A!"

so happy tho so don't worry about anything! i'm very safe with the group i'm with!

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