The red Muzungu:

Okay so I have to apologize for my last blog post. I understand that it was totally random and not very well written. I have to pay for my internet time and so I was just writing my thoughts as they came. PLUS the keyboards here are horrible; it is a British keyboard so the keys are off and hard to get used to, hence the entire thing was in lower case. ANYWAY, lots and lots to share, I’ll just start from the very beginning with my flight.
My flight took a total of 3 very full days! I flew from Boise to Minneapolis (3 hrs), Minneapolis to Amsterdam (8 hrs), Amsterdam to Uganda (got 1.5 hours into the flight and the left engine started going out…great huh? I saw a Castaway moment flash before my eyes...turned around, another 1.5 hours and spent the night in Amsterdam), Friday we left again for Uganda and we successfully got here that night (8 hrs).
Can I just say that Amsterdam was amazing! I was with two other HELP members and we got everything paid for (food, hotel, transportation, and a free whole 5 minute phone call!) Downtown was beautiful, with old churches and buildings everywhere. People ride bikes there like cars and every taxi was a Mercedes. I even walked half a block into the red light district, took a picture of a coffee shop, got asked if I wanted marijuana and turned right around; I was sure not to stay very long! It was kinda disappointing though, because the town was pretty dirty. Eww, there were pigeons everywhere eating garbage off the streets. It was a great mini vacation though, because I was able to take an unexpected long and hot shower before Africa.
NOW onto Uganda, currently I am sitting in my house typing this up and I hear “Muzungu, Muzungu,” (white person) coming from the outside of our front gate. The little children wait through the bushes and call for us until we come out. People are going crazy over us here, for the first time I understand what it feels like to be a minority. We stick out like a sore thumb, we don’t blend in anywhere. Our first day here we went out to lunch and a girl in my group ordered a fish-when you order a fish here, you get the entire thing, head and all! That was a good first welcoming. The culture is so very different than America’s but I am beginning to get used to it. Some odd things here are that boys hold hands down the street, there are no street signs and people drive up on the sidewalks, the police carry HUGE guns and they look like they are 14 years old, it is beyond humid but unbelievably beautiful skies/clouds, there are people everywhere coming and going but I have yet figured out where they are coming and going to and from, the butcheries here have hanging meat with flies all over, woman breast feed on boda bodas, showing your thigh means you are a prostitute, and we (meaning girls) can’t look men into the eyes because it means that we are flirting with them and they will want us as a wife, polygamy is common here, and I waved a little girl over like you wave a prostitute-not a good thing!! I also slept next to a gecko on my wall last night, took my first bucket shower and rode on boda boda!—nothing typical for an Idaho girl.
Today we went to a rural town outside of Mukono and helped build a medical clinic and hand planted a ‘garden’-more like a farm. I realized out grateful I am of modern technology! Thank you John Deer! Often times I would be looking down for awhile and look back up to nothing but lush green plants everywhere and monkey calls, only to remember where I am- I am in Africa! I feel so blessed to be here. Although I went there not wearing sunscreen, bad idea…I am fried! Pretty sure the people here have seen black people, white people, but probably never a red muzungu before!!
I am getting more used to the food, but I am still struggling with it. I have eaten a rolex (a thick fried flour tortilla with eggs, tomatoes, and peppers-kinda like a breakfast burrito, delicious!), matoke (banana that is steamed and mashed-their staple food-gross), posho (a grainy flour substance of ground maize that is mixed with water and cooked-gross), porridge (posho and water, as a hot drink-tastes like liquid grits-bland), and pineapple (which is AMAZING). I also went to the store and bought Nutella, pretty much the only American food that you can buy here.

I am very, and I mean very slowly picking up on the language. The ‘a’ sound as in attempt, ‘e’ as in employ, ‘I’ as in import, ‘o’ as in only and ‘u’ as in blue. Here is a list of some of the words I can say:
•Oli Otya?-How are you?
•Bulungi-good (like I am good)
•Weebale-Thank you

Okay this is getting fairly long so I’m going to end it now, but I miss and love everyone. I think about you guys often. I appreciate all the thoughts, prayers, and support. Know that I am very safe and am starting to love it here. SIIBA BULUNGI!!