Minneapolis Airport Tradition

Classic Roast Beef sandwich from Arby's during my layover

Work and stuff

Part of my responsibilities at the office include holding a public health lecture every other Tuesday. It's a short (supposed to be half an hour but always lasts an hour with questions) presentation on a health topic. Yesterday's was on sickle cell anemia. Interesting things I learned from my lecture:

• Approximately 25% of Nigeria's adult population is a carrier of the sickle cell gene
• Approximately 150,000 children are born every year with sickle cell anemia
• There is a belief that if you live with sickle cell anemia beyond 39 years, you will lead a normal life and not have sickle cell anemia anymore (obviously this is untrue).

Lectures and meetings are interesting in Nigeria. I don't think I've ever gone to a meeting where when the presenter/speaker asks if there are any questions, no questions are asked. The Nigerian staff here will always ask questions. Even if they know the answer to their question, they will still ask. I know this because staff have come up to me after meetings and told me. They want to provide "open discussion". Also sometimes the questions take 3 minutes to ask. People have a very round-about... beating around the bush way of asking questions where they talk for a long time before actually asking the question. In other words, meetings in Nigeria never end on time and can last for... well forever. Sometimes it's a bit painful to sit through. 

My other work recently has centered around a lot of administrative work- creating a comprehensive new employee packet for new hires and standard operating procedures for the office. Nothing too thrilling there.

In other news, Teresa is officially gone and I am all by my lonesome. I have this giant apartment and can't really do anything with the space. I'm debating turning my hallway into a slip-and-slide. Could be extremely messy, but also very fun. I don't think I'll become as crazy here as I did in Sembabule because there are still tons of people to interact and socialize with. I have been a bit of a hermit the last few days and have been watching GCB, the new ABC show. Trashy but hilarious.

It's pretty unbelievable that it's coming to the end of April... It just seems like yesterday I was coming back to Abuja from Christmas with my family. Some days the time seems to pass unbelievably slowly, but I am starting to think ahead to what's next. Move back to the States? Find another job somewhere else? Try to pursue my dream of working for a while in Southeast Asia? Find a job in a place where electricity is consistent and internet doesn't depend on some magical being? Who knows where life will take me next...

Slacking a bit, but here's an update

Hello! I apologize for slacking on updating this blog. I could try giving you several excuses, but in the end, I have just been neglectful. I know it's been over a month since I last wrote. I promise to start being better about writing. What has happened in my life lately...

• Teresa and I flew back to the US on February 9th for some SAS training in Atlanta. I was able to spend a weekend back home with family before starting the class, so that was pretty nice. We spent a little over 2 weeks in the US. I brushed up on all my biostatistics and SAS skills. I ate lots of delicious food and indulged in some Lean Pockets and pizza... turns out I really just enjoy processed frozen foods. Then we arrived back in Abuja on the 27th. 
• Jet lag is incredibly hard to get over. I seem to have more of a problem with it coming back to Nigeria. The fact that I had a whole row of 4 seats on the Frankfurt-Abuja leg of the flight probably didn't help. I slept the whole way down, but it was daytime in Abuja. So by the time I got back into the city, I was wide awake. It took me almost a week to actually be back on a normal-feeling sleep schedule. 
• The first full week of March was a busy time at the office. We had a visit from some Atlanta consultants to help the office develop a business continuity plan aka if something terrible happens, how do we keep things running plan. At the same time, we had a 2 day visit from Dr. Tom Frieden, the Director of CDC. Very important man, very important visit. He's much shorter than I thought he'd be. I don't know why I thought he'd be super tall, but he's not. I think the feeling is equivalent to seeing the Mona Lisa. Very important, hear about it all the time- much smaller than you thought it would be. I think the visit went well... I'm not important enough to actually know what's going on.
• Other work things... not much to report. Doing a few things here and there, but no main project to report about. 
• I've started playing Ultimate Frisbee and have come to realize what a fun game it is! It gives me something else to do and I've met quite a few new people through playing. I also like to believe it helps me stay in shape, however I think I'm counteracting any calories I'm burning by eating way too many cookies and lots of candy. 
• I'm slowly trying to think about my next steps after my contract ends here in Nigeria. I have to look for a new job! I may apply for a second year with the fellowship, but would like to try to be placed elsewhere. Africa has been great, but I think I want to try Southeast Asia. Also because then I'll be closer to family. And I think it'd be an awesome new adventure.

To be very honest, I don't have too much to report. It's starting to get warmer and warmer here. The rainy season is coming, I've heard. So we'll see what Abuja is like then. Mango season has arrived, so I've been trying to enjoy that as much as possible. However, we have learned that mango juice definitely stains clothing. That's all I have for now, but I swear to write more and do so more often. Sorry for the neglect!

Happy Holidays!

Tomorrow night, I'm flying back to Wisconsin to spend the holidays with my family. I'm strangely excited to wear a winter jacket and wear holiday socks. It's been hard to get into the festive holiday spirit when it's still 90 degrees outside and sunny. However it is Harmattan season, so the evenings have cooled down quite a bit. I love the weather now. I wish it would stay this way, but I have been warned that soon the weather will turn and we will hit triple digits.

I have nothing really important to report about the last week, but here are some highlights:

• Last Friday, I had an amazing dinner with some new friends at a Lebanese restaurant. We had spinach pies, stuffed grape leaves, lamb, hummus, and other delicious goodies. The food was fantastic, probably some of the best I've had in Abuja (other than the Chinese place we go to).
• The past week has been interesting in respect to taxis. People keep telling me there is a fuel crisis in Abuja and the lines of cars waiting to get gas at gas stations are extremely long. I've had to pay more for taxis recently than I ever have in the past. However yesterday I noticed the lines at the gas station were no longer as long as they were before. No matter how many taxi drivers I talk to, no one seems to be able to explain what happened.
• Washing my sheets by hand is really rather difficult, but I gave it my best attempt.
• There is a spider that hangs out above the water heater in my bathroom. He and I have come to an understanding that as long as he stays up there, I won't attempt to kill him. But the minute he comes down, he takes his life into his own hands because I will chase him down with my shoe (which is what I did with the last spider I saw in the apartment).
• I have mosquito bites everywhere. I have no idea where I got them from, but I am so itchy. I have definitely upped my chances of developing malaria in the last few days.
• Many people are on leave at work, so the office has gotten very quiet. It's kind of nice.
• My face is healing pretty nicely and didn't end up being as bad as I imagined it would be. So I'm now ready to go home and take Christmas pictures with my family!

To all my Wisconsin readers (mainly the ones located around the Milwaukee area), I'd love to see you when I'm home!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's December and I want to see snow

Life in Abuja is winding down slowly. Teresa is heading back to the States today, so I will have approximately 2 weeks by myself. Let's just hope I don't destroy the house before she comes back. The past few weekends, I've had the chance to go out and meet lots of new people in Abuja. It has helped me expand my social circle and see what else is out there. Work has been surprisingly busy. I've had a few projects thrown at me, so I've been trying to wade through a lot of new information and learn about the programs here. Abuja is growing on me. It has its days of pure frustration but I really don't mind it here. The city is pretty easy to live in. I have nothing unusually interesting to report, but for all you readers hailing from the Midwest- I'll be back in the area around Christmas! Wisconsin, you better provide me with some snow while I'm home!!!

Countdown- 14 days before leaving

The countdown begins! I just finished Day 1 of orientation in Atlanta. Long day, lots of words and papers to go through. Working for the government involves a lot more paperwork and keeping track of things than simply being a lowly intern who is volunteering. Paper trails are important. There are 21 of us. If any of you get the ASPH Friday email, you will see me this week in the email. We took a group shot for the newbie fellows. It's great having all public health people together. AND awesome to meet people and see where everyone has worked and will be working. It's pretty awesome.

I am officially excited for my move now. Before it was pretty surreal and just not sinking in, now it's so much more of a reality. I'm moving to Nigeria! And this time, I'm getting paid for my work. Woot woot! I love international work, but I also just graduated so I'm poor. So this fellowship is both an amazing opportunity and a chance to go back to Africa while not going bankrupt. Tomorrow is another day of training!

The Challenges of Moving

Moving can be stressful, regardless of where you are moving to. However, I am realizing that moving overseas is a whole new ball game. My fellowship does not have housing set up for me, so I am currently doing the search for apartments. So if anyone out there has information about apartments in Abuja, I'm all ears. Plus furnishing the apartment... I'll be needing help on that front too.

The other issue is cleaning all my stuff that is here in the States. Since I have not stayed in the same place for longer than a year at a time since I graduated from high school, it's challenging to know where 1) all my stuff is and 2) finding a place to put everything all together. I have come to realize that I own an obnoxious amount of books. Someday I hope to have floor to ceiling bookshelves to store them in.

Other than that, there are always the stresses of moving abroad. But that's nothing super new. I have orientation in Atlanta for 10 days before I leave for Nigeria, so that will be interesting and hopefully very helpful. And finally, my official departure date is September 27!

Home Sweet Home

I'm back in the US, and I have to admit that the last 5 months feel like a dream. It's bizarre to know that earlier this week, I was sitting in Sembabule, sunny and even hot, when I'm now in snow and cold. My trip back home was a bit of an adventure. I left Thursday night for the airport, only to be told upon arrival that my 1:45AM flight to Amsterdam was delayed until after 4AM. Then my nicely packed bag was checked by security, so in the end, it wasn't so nicely packed anymore. Then a KLM person looked at where I was going and told me she had never heard of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, even though she has worked at the airport for a few years. So I stood around for 15 minutes while they checked to make sure I wasn't a terrorist. Then once I finally got up to the check-out counter, I was told my carry-on was too heavy. I've never been told this before, but I guess I've never tried to carry a lot of soap stone objects home. Thus I had to unpack and redistribute stuff within my bags at the airport. Let's just say it wasn't the best time I've ever had at an airport.

After getting into Amsterdam, it turned out that my connecting flight to Detroit was also delayed. It made me a little worried about connecting to my final flight to Milwaukee, but there wasn't much I could do about it. So I enjoyed a delicious slice of pizza with real cheese and dewormed myself. I finally arrived home Friday night. It was great getting home and seeing my family. None of my luggage got lost, and everything arrived in one piece. So although my trip home wasn't the smoothest of all traveling experiences, I still got home!

I miss Uganda already. These last 5 months have been extremely special to me, and I will never forget the people I met throughout my trip.

PIZZA DELIVERY and some hail

Earlier yesterday we had the closest thing to snow I’m ever going to get in Sembabule: hail. There was an intense hailstorm for about an hour. It was intense! Lots of wind, pouring rain, and small, pebble-sized hail! While my reaction went something like “Oh cool!”, it is actually very unfortunate because the hail kills many of the crops. My reactions are often the opposite of what people feel here. When it rains, I go: ughhh rain; everyone else says: hallelujah the crops will grow. When it’s cool, I love the weather here. It feels like fall weather in Midwest or New England, but everyone else mentions how cold it is and gets bundled up. Looks like I'm still a snow bunny from Wisconsin!
The most exciting news: PIZZA!!! My supervisor and the operations officer went to Masaka in the afternoon to do some banking and a few errands. They got back to the office after dark, and we got an incredible surprise delivered to our door: a small veggie pizza!!! My dream came true! Literally. I had dreamed about Pizza Hut delivering to our room door here in Uganda the other night. They were so sweet and bought us a pizza while they were in Masaka. It was amazing. Thank you Beatrice and Rose; you made our night!!! It disappeared in approximately 3 minutes.

And the band played on...?

Although it's a title of a book on HIV/AIDS especially in the US and I am in Uganda, a country that is known for doing relatively well on the fight against HIV, I am actually referencing the live band that walked through Sembabule this morning. It's a rare sight to see a live marching band at any time but at 9am in the morning in town, it was an even bigger surprise. After asking around, I was told that the band was hired by a woman who is running for a political office in Sembabule. Other politicians hire groups of bodas or cars to drive through town, honking, yelling, publicizing their name, and attracting attention. This woman was a bit more creative because it is rare for a marching band to walk through town. This definitely will attract a crowd and get people talking.

I crave deep dish pizza... with veggies piled on... I also want an apple. Do you understand how rare it is to go almost 5 months and only eating an apple once?! Apples aren't common to Africa and the only one I've eaten was the one I bought in Rwanda. I miss it. And pecan pie... I just want pie... Thanksgiving is coming up and Uganda doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving (since it's an American holiday). So we don't get that Thursday as a holiday AND I'm missing one of my favorite days of the year: Black Friday. I'm starting to get rather depressed. I'm so sad that I won't be able to wake up at 5am and head to the mall with my friends. No turkey, no Chinese-style stuffing my mom makes... On Thanksgiving, you guys better eat copious amounts of food on my behalf.

Hello Bob Junior

Yesterday, Claire met Bob Junior while she was bathing. He jumped out of an empty jerry can that was sitting in our shower area. After keeping her eye on him and finishing her shower, we used a plastic bag to remove him from our room. Then Bob Junior proceeded to have a photo shoot with me outside our room.

It has been exceedingly difficult to wake up since we got back. I don't know why but I'm definitely dragging my feet every morning to get ready for work. The office is really quiet with half the staff in Mubende for a training, which makes it difficult to concentrate in the afternoon when all I want to do is to take a siesta.

I bought some Twix bars this weekend and I have to say, I think they taste better in Uganda. Maybe it's because they're not as sweet or sugary (they're imported from the UK). Or maybe it's because I've been away from America too long. But I do think they are more delicious here than when I eat them in the US.

I'm currently finishing up Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux. It's such an interesting book. He goes by land from Cairo to Cape Town. I've heard stories of people who've done this trip, but it's really interesting reading it from a perspective of someone who lived in Africa in the 60's. He talks about how things have changed, how things are rather similar, and how sometimes things are worse than they were before. This isn't a happy-go-lucky safari book about the Big 5 and his fun experiences on safari, but it is an interesting, thought-provoking read that I am really enjoying.

Yesterday was election day and I only get to read about the results online. I'm kind of sad I missed such an interesting point in American politics, especially now with the House being controlled by the Republicans. Since I'm leaving in December, I'm also going to miss the Ugandan elections that will be held in February. There's a lot of campaigning going on and a couple months ago, there was major drama in Sembabule involving the primary elections for candidates in the NRM party (someone was shot). I kind of wish I could be here to see what happens in February. The US embassy in Uganda is preparing for any possible problems that might arise during or after the elections. I just got an email from them. All the organizations are developing or have a contingency plan if things go poorly and all ex-pats need to leave the country.

I'm sitting here this morning, rather sleepy and thinking about politics, waiting to take chai. Every morning at the office, around 9:30-10, we have a tea break. Chai = tea. Everyone gets a short break to drink chai together. Ugandan tea is not what tea drinking is like for me in the US. Back home, I would use a tea bag or tea infuser and add hot water. Tada! I'd have my tea. Sometimes I'd add sugar or honey, but usually I drink it plain, without anything added. In Uganda, tea is made by adding some water to milk and some ginger, boiling it, adding tea leaves for people to drink. People usually add quite a great deal of sugar. I've rarely seen Ugandans drink coffee. It's always all about the tea. Sometimes they make things more exciting and add more ginger (when I say more ginger, I mean A LOT more) or cinnamon. It's quite nice, being able to take a tea break every morning. There's often also something to eat with the tea. Bread with Blue Band (the scary, non-refridgerated margarine), chapati, samosas, or fried cassava. I love our morning tea breaks. Speaking of which, I'm going to go enjoy right now!

C-pop in Sembabule

My favorite piece of electronic equipment here in Uganda would have to be my iPod. Nothing drowns out the cows mooing, roosters crowing, random radios blaring, and incessant whining of mosquitos better than a little C-pop in the early morning.

I can't really think of anything profound to say, but here's a little update on life here. You know how they say you can never "catch up" on sleep? They are right. I've been a bit of a walking zombie all week from the lack of sleep last weekend. As for work, we had visitors from the project that funds us this week. There were meetings and discussions for them for a few days. We're also coming down to the end of this fiscal year, which means lots of reports are due. I've been working on data collection for our projects all week. Every time I think I'm done with the data and I submit it to my supervisor, the next day or even that night, she tells me that we've filled out the wrong form or we didn't get all the data they needed or we've done something else wrong... It gets a little frustrating after a while. Especially when you're hand counting several hundred forms and tallying up totals. But I'm happy to report that the data is now completed... but that might just be wishful thinking.

The tap wasn't running for part of this week so Claire and I were running out of water to bathe, do laundry, etc with. This is slightly inconvenient but I think I've reached a point in Claire and my relationship where she doesn't mind when I wake up, looking horrible after not showering for 2 days... maybe... unless she's not telling me something.

I do all my laundry by hand in the basin I wash myself with. The water always turns a beautiful reddish brown color. And no matter how many times I rinse my clothes, I can never seem to get the water to run clear. I cannot wait to get home to Wisconsin and throw all my clothes into the washing machine.

I miss food. I miss hot meals that don't involve matoke or beans. I miss my mom's cooking. Nothing can relate how much I'd kill for some quality Chinese food right now. OR when I'm paging through the few magazines I've accumulated and I come across an ad for DiGiorno's pizza. Sigh. What's worse is flipping through these magazines and stumbling across images of food. Delicious sandwiches, meals, salads, cakes... I know you might find me slightly pathetic at this point, but I'm beyond caring. I miss food.

I stayed in Sembabule this weekend so it's some quality time to lay around and recover from last weekend and my zombie-state. I've finished The Wizard of the Nile (a fascinating book about Kony and northern Uganda) and am now tackling Atlas Shrugged.

The countdown begins: 2 months until my feet touch American soil again.

Just A Small Town Girl...

Last night, my roommate and I set up our small home entertainment system (which involves a tiny Netbook screen on a stool and the volume cranked up) and watched several episodes of Glee. LOOOOOVE!!! The title of this blog post is a shout-out to the Glee rendition of the Journey song. Now if people here would just break out into song randomly with a band playing in the background, they would make my trip THAT much more fun… Sadly, I am missing the beginning of the new seasons of all my favorite shows while I’m here… Does someone want to DVR my shows for me??????

I have reached the half-way point of my trip!! It’s so insane that it’s already the end of September. Part of me feels like I just got here yesterday, then the other part feels like I’ve been here way longer than under 100 days. In summary, thus far I’ve:

• Tried sugar cane and jack fruit for the first time
• Eaten more chapati than is probably healthy for any human being
• Learned that I am still rather inadequate at lighting matches
• Ridden my fair share of bodas and have not gotten into an accident yet
• Read about 20 books
• Watched a chicken get slaughter for the first time
• Saw a live praying mantis for the first time, only to turn around and accidentally step on it
• Dreamed about pizza at least twice
• Had one nightmare about falling into a pit latrine
• Ridden in a 5 person vehicle with 8 passengers and a driver
• Spent time in 5 different districts of Uganda
• Managed to keep up with writing in my journal
• Mastered washing my hair in a basin
• Stayed within the budget I made for myself before coming to Uganda
• Made some awesome friends
• Not gotten MALARIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wonder what adventures will be in store for me the second half of my time here in Uganda!

I think my new roommate is good luck because we haven’t had any major electricity issues all week. Pretty impressive since I have never had the electricity be this reliable since I arrived in July. For those readers in the USA, please enjoy the fall farmer’s markets for me (apples, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, banana bread, apple cider, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, everything autumnal…).

Ugandan Animals are so Smart

I am the silly American. I like to watch bugs crawling on the ground. I find frogs jumping around the office amusing. Then I ask random, strange questions, like “why are all the chapati stands manned by guys?” Then the other day I added another question that added to my “I’m a weird American” status. It goes something like this:

Most animals roam freely around Sembabule. You see the random chicken walking the same path you are down the street. There’s the random pig and her piglet crossing the road. There’s the occasional goat trotting up the hill. I ask my coworkers, “How do you know who each animal belongs to?” To me, this seems like a fair question. There is no ID collar on every chicken, no identifying mark on every cow. The animals just roam freely, not tethered to something by the house of their owners. The answer I got was “just watch and see what house each animal walks into at night.” My reaction was a cross between “Huh?” and “WOW REALLY?!” Thus continuing to fuel my coworkers’ amusement. It was explained to me that in Uganda, animals know where home is. So during the day, they wander around, eating, living happily, and wandering through town. Then at night, they turn around and go home. Hmm I don’t know if animals, other than dogs, do this in the USA, but maybe Ugandan animals are just smarter… AND my last question is what happens when your pig doesn’t come home at night? What if someone steals it? Are people more trusting of their neighbors here in Uganda?

No Longer Alone

I have a new roommate! No, not an animal or reptile or insect. A real live human being!!! We have a new intern who coincidentally also hails from Wisconsin. (She’s a Minnesota grad, but I think I can forgive her for that one.) Yay for a new friend! I met Claire in Kampala on Thursday. She had arrived in the country on Tuesday, and she was going to head back to Sembabule with me on Friday. So Thursday was her second day of orientation. I tagged along to keep her company, and I definitely amended her schedule a bit. I took out what I thought was unnecessary (like going to a snake park since she's already been to the Wildlife Reserve and eating traditional Ugandan food since we get that every day out in the field). I added what I thought were necessities for survival when coming into Kampala for a weekend: places for coffee and non-African food (Café Pap, 1000 Cups of Coffee House, Café Java), Nakumatt, Garden City, and how to ride a boda boda. It was a solid day and I am impressed with her level of energy since she was still recovering from jet lag. Thursday night I visited a friend in the city who has moved out of the place I lived in 2 years ago and now has a sweet new apartment. She’s looking for a roommate… I want to move in. Too bad I’m not based in Kampala or I totally would.


On Friday, I went through the fascinating process of trying to pick up packages from the post office. It took forever but was totally worth it. THANK YOU!! (special shout-out to CP… I love you, you rock my world, getting The Improper Bostonian in Uganda is AWESOME, I’ve never loved Jolly Ranchers as much as I do right now, and your card made me LOL. xoxo)

In the afternoon, we filled up the truck with luggage, all the stuff Claire and I managed to buy between Thursday and Friday (which included bottled water from 3 different large grocery stores, candy bars, and tons of crackers), and off we went to Sembabule. The operations officer graciously made Claire and I dinner, so once we got back to the office, we had a hot meal to eat! The process of unpacking tons of bags of groceries, Claire’s luggage, and reorganizing the room was a little intense but we managed to do it!

Yay for a new roommate!

Expert Bug Killer

As is typically my habit before going to bed, I turn off the lights (if we have power), sit inside my bed net, turn on my head lamp or a flash light, shine it at the wall, and wait. Inevitably some bug (whether mosquito or otherwise) will be attracted to the light and will then succumb to the unavoidable death via my hand squashing it against the wall. It’s most gratifying when it is a mosquito but any bug will do. I currently have giant mosquito bites that look more similar to small tumors on my legs; very attractive. No malaria yet though!

Our organization has a new program manager (PM), which is very exciting since now there is another go-to person for any and all questions I may have during my stay here. As for work, I have been all over the place. We’ve come pretty far in our initial M&E data collection process. I have to sit down with the Sembabule data and go through it. Microsoft Excel and Access are really difficult to manage all the data in, but it’s the only system we have right now. I’d download CSPro or at least something else, but the internet is way too slow for that. I was in Mubende for 2 days, meeting the new PM and attending regional meetings. It’s a little difficult to coordinate between the two sites since I spend most of my time in Sembabule, so I worry about data a lot. But it looks like next week I will be heading back to Mubende to spend some time there, helping out with the M&E stuff. While I was in Mubende, I attended and Legal and Human Rights for OVCs meeting. It was really interesting to see the different stakeholders come together and discuss the problems they face in Mubende for OVCs. We had speakers from the District, the Police, the Prison, and another organization working with OVCs in Mubende. It was really eye-opening, and I really see the challenges that need to be dealt with so that OVCs know and exercise their rights.

The cell phone I have here is less high-tech than the cell phone I use in the US, but it does come with a feature I wish I had on my phone in the States. This would be the torch (aka flashlight). At the top of many, even the most basic, flashlights, they have a built in flashlight that you can turn on and off. This proves to be very helpful rather than using the bright screen of the cell phone to illuminate whatever you’re trying to do. Love it. What I love less, the lack of a full keyboard on which to text on. I never learned that skill since I wasn’t able to text until after I got a phone with a fancy keyboard. Thus texting takes me about 10 years...

Observations of Uganda

Since I have been to Uganda before, some of the cultural differences between here and the USA are not as shocking to me. But they still take a little getting used to. I spent my entire day with American students yesterday, and the topic of different frustrations and marvelings of Ugandan culture came up.

An example:
People here do not use future tense. It seems like there is no differentiation between the future in one hour or the future in one day. For example, if you ask a taxi driver how much farther your trip will take before arriving at your desired location, they will either be confused on what you are asking or the answer will be a random amount of time "20 minutes." Whether that 20 minutes is a true 20 minutes or 1 hour and 20 minutes is left to be discovered. I have always been taught to set goals for the future and work slowly to reach those goals. That mindset does not seem to exist here, at least I have not seen it. It can be rather frustrating when you are trying to make plans. As an American, I have to remember to exercise a lot of patience.

Ugandans are, for the most part, very helpful to foreigners. When I'm wandering around lost, people will kindly give me directions. When a taxi driver tries to rip me off, other passengers will tell me how much they're paying so I can pay the same amount. I really appreciate it!

Entebbe!

Today I had the opportunity to hang out with some mzungu friends I've made in Uganda and to go explore a city I've never been to: Entebbe. This is where the international airport for Uganda is located. Thus the only exposure I've had of it is in the dark of night when I've been driving to and from the airport on my way in or out of Uganda.

My friends and I visited the National Botanical Gardens, which were beautiful. There were many spiders and spider webs all over the gardens, and our guide warned us not to allow them to touch our skin. They produce some sort of toxin that gives humans a rash. They are definitely ugly and big enough for me never to want to touch them anyway. We roamed around the gardens, seeing Lake Victoria, monkeys, birds, trees, flowers, and much more. We even had an encounter with fire ants, which was not the most thrilling experience. They bite! After the gardens, we had lunch on the beach, looking out at Lake Victoria. It was great! Very very relaxing.

Then we journeyed on to visit the Uganda Wildlife Education Center (which had the acronym UWEC, which made my fellow UW student/friend and I think of UW-Eau Claire). It is the national zoo. There were lions, rhinos, zebras... it was a zoo. But it was still lots of fun. Our day ended with spending time at the pool of a fancy hotel and getting an excellent dinner.

It was a very fun day. I explored a new place, made new friends (even two BU students), and the pool had warm showers with excellent water pressure! I am the cleanest I have been the entire trip. I am happy to report that I am not sunburnt; unhappy to report that I have another 4 mosquito bites. Thus making the total count: 6.

Until next time. Sula bulungi (Good night)!

Lake Victoria at the Botanical Gardens

The Final Countdown

D-Day... or maybe I should call it L-Day (leaving day) is tomorrow. My New Year's Resolution is coming true: I am leaving brown US soil for red African soil for almost 6 months. I haven't been back to Uganda since my Summer 2008 trip, and this time I'm going alone. No group of muzungus to keep me company. I'm making my last minute lists, last minute runs to the store, and last minute preparations before I jet off tomorrow. Not much to this post, but welcome to the blog. Check back often. I can't promise how often I'll update, since I don't know how good the internet access will be. But keep in touch. I'd love to hear from you!!!

And yes, I hummed The Final Countdown the entire time I wrote this post.

Cheers!