Maganda Uganda

As a tribute to my almost trip to the Philippinnes, "maganda" means beautiful in Tagalog. And it is true. Uganda is beautiful. Yesterday I traveled to the site where I will be living from now on. The drive passed through the Ugandan countryside which is amazing. Green trees and rolling hills make for gorgeous scenery. The drive was typical of Africa, but brought a smile to my face anyway. Most of the way, we traveled on a one lane, dirt road that fits a vehicle comfortable. Now if you see another car coming at you from the other directions, it is quite a squeeze to bypass each other. There are bumps and then there are speed humps. Yes, humps. They are American speedbumps on mega steroids. They are intense to drive over and make sleeping nearly impossible unless you can sleep like the dead. Also there are holes everywhere. Therefore drivers swerve to miss the giant ones and just drive over the small ones. Drives here are always an adventure. I have learned this: drink as little water as possible- bathroom breaks are difficult to come by; try not to eat anything- better to feel hungry than to get carsick and vomit on the side of the road. I finally arrived at Ssembabule last night, a fairly remote town about 4 hours away from Kampala that sits at the top of a hill.

I have my own room in the enclosed office compound, which is rather nice because I got to truly unpack for the first time since I've been here. I finally dug out my sunscreen! And impressively nothing exploded in my bags except for my shampoo. Good thing my mom was smart and wrapped everything in individual plastic bags! Thanks Mom!! We don't have a refridgerator, so I drank an entire quart of juice last night that needed to be refridgerated after opening. Finding out how to live without a refridgerator will be quite interesting. I'll just have to be creative! There is no running water here, but I got a jerry can full of water to bathe with and to use for any other needs. We have pit latrines to use, which make me smile. They are an adventure to use. The ones here are pleasant smelling, which was a fantastic surprise.

Today is Day 1 in Sembabule. I had chapati and fresh passionfruit for breakfast. Chapati is just fantastic. It's essentially dough that is rolled flat. Sort of like Indian naan but thinner. Fresh, hot, and delicious. I sat at the front of the office and ate. I got to watch all the children walking to school and became the main attraction. "Mzungu mzungu mzungu!!" I just waved and smiled. Today at the office, I have been copying Luganda by hand on about 100 sheets of paper. We printed about 700 registration sheets for OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) to be used for our project, but they didn't print correctly. Thus I am filling in the missing information by hand. I have severe writer's cramp, so I'm taking a break and am able to use the internet.