Dear United States
Family,
I have arrived!
Well day one in Africa and I am already falling love.
But first things first… The plane ride(s)
My journey to Africa started off with a flight cancellation.
Not a good way to start but it does mean that I was able to have a birthday
lunch with my parents and grandpa before finally leaving.
Then on the plane I went. Instead of flying to Dallas I was rerouted
to LA then on to London. My flight to London was long but nothing to exciting
to report. I sat next to a cute old British couple who bickered and held hands
the whole flight J.
I did not get much sleep unfortunately but all in all it was a good flight. Then I got to hang out in the
London airport for 6 hours. I found myself an uncomfortable bench and slept for
a few hours. Then I caught my flight to Kenya. I again was surrounded with
British people that made the flight rather entertaining. Then in Kenya I had a
short layover before getting on my flight to Uganda. Nothing too exciting
happened on any of the flights. I didn’t sleep much on any of them but all in
all I can’t complain about the 28 hours total on planes.
I went through customs; got my visa, a warm welcome to
Uganda, and a blast of humidity I haven’t felt since Tennessee. Then out the
doors I went to finally meet someone from my team! Todd and Jessie and Mike
were there to pick me up. I was the second volunteer to arrive as others had had
flight changes and delays. I will admit I was happy to finally see people I
knew… or would soon know ;) We had to hang out in Entebbe for a while to wait
for three other volunteers so we went to breakfast ( they ate I didn’t I had
just eaten airplane breakfast and was not quite ready to eat again) the drive was so beautiful and green. Then we
went to the hostel they had stayed at and just hung about for a bit until we
went to pick up the others. After that we hopped in our van and our hilarious
and kind driver Stephen drove us all the way to Mbale. The ride was longer than
usual but not too bad and we got back close to 9pm. Driving through Uganda was
surreal. I have been planning and thinking about coming to Uganda for months
now and to be here I am not sure it has fully set in! Here are a few pictures
from the drive sorry there aren’t very many my phone had limited battery power
to take pictures on the way.
Then we made it home to our beautiful purple house. I was so
relieved to see a bed! J
We all quickly showered (so cold but so refreshing) and went to bed and it was
heavenly! This morning has been relaxing as we are waiting for Todd to come
with the other volunteers that came later.We have already experienced the joys
of power outings already! Apparently it goes off close to 8 times a day so who
know what times I will be able to update while I am here but I am off to a
pretty good start! **** the power was
out ALLLLLLLLL day so in this short time I will not post pics here but I will
to facebook****
We are already set to meet with partners (those that Help
has worked with in the past) this afternoon. I am grateful that we have had the
morning to get situated and over the jet lag a bit before we jump in even if it
is just for a few hours!
**Update**
We met with Saleh today in Mbale. Everyone is great and kind
and wonderful but Saleh is the best. He owns a café/hostel in town and uses the
funds to support the school that he is the principal at. He has worked with
Help for a few years and has been instrumental in multiple projects. We are so
excited to do some more evaluations of past projects and decide what we will be
doing with his help.
We took our first Boda boda ride and it was a disaster in
every sense of the word but the best experience. We all tried to stay together
but two bodas took off, one stopped at the petrol station, we got separated.
But we all found our way back… And I had my first Ugandan man propose to me.
Yep, cant say that I was expecting that but all is well that ends well and I
promise I will not marry the first Ugandan that proposes to me J Tomorrow we are off
the orphanage and some more training.
Enjoy the few pictures on facebook I will post them here
later too!
With love from Africa.
