It's Hard To Live Life Without Pants

I am home. The journey back to Chicago was a little frustrating, but only because I am not sure that leaving Uganda was the right decision. We had a 6 hour layover in Amsterdam, so that was boring, and I wasnt able to sleep at all because I am just not a fan of sleeping in public. Oh well...... but as promised, I am going to share with you the details of my trip. They will be forever burned into my brain, and I just cant believe that its all over. I think the hardest part of coming home, has been looking at the pictures I have. Anyway..... let's go back to the beginning, shall we? While sitting on the plane, as we were landing in Entebbe, I couldnt help but notice the sick feeling that i was getting. I was a little nervous. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, and that was an unsettling feeling. Once we got our temporary visa, and claimed our baggage, it was time to head to Kampala. It was dark out when we arrived, and the second I stepped out of the airport, I was hit by the s...

Alright, I was able to get to the computer one last time before we leave for the airport. I cant believe how fast these 2 weeks went, and I really am sad to be leaving. I met the best people and had the best time here. I know I sound like a broken record here, but there will many more blogs about the trip when i can sit at the computer at home and really concentrate. In the meantime, here's the plan. When I get home around 1pm I am going to get some lunch. Then I am going to go home, start washing my nasty clothes that are stinking up my suitcase, take a shower/bath, and then i am going to go get my pictures developed. Hell yes. After that, I am going to take a 45 minute nap, and then I dunno. If you have any suggestions, dont comment on this, just call my cell phone anytime after 2pm tomorrow afternoon. I am not looking forward to the flight. I have a 6 hour layover in Amsterdam. Hopefully i will be able to get some sleep on the plane this time, i could really use a nap. Wish me l...

Alright, so we left Fort portal to go on the safari yesterday morning. We were on the bus for about 8 hours. It sucked the big one. So when we got there we discovered that we were pretty much camping in the wild. Jaki and I shared a hut and there were tons of wild animals outside our hut ALL night long. It was a little scary knowing that there were lions out there somewhere. I didnt really sleep because it was hot in there and Jaki was all over the bed. Plus, I was very well aware that there were huge bugs all around us (even tho we had a net over the bed). The safari was pretty cool i guess, but it was chilly outside and there werent too many animals out. We did hike up this steep mountain tho, and the view was totally worth it. I am kinda crunched for time, so I'll blog when I get home. We are back in Kampala for the remaining 2 days of the trip ( i cant believe how fast this all flew by) and it is definitly nice to be back at the motel we started at. It took us 10 hours to get ...

Oh man, today was a really busy day! We ended up painting a huge murial on one of the white walls, and we got all of the kids to participate by putting their handprints on the wall! Then all the guys decided to paint mustaches on themselves, so all the kids wanted to paint eachother. It was so funny. This morning (yea i know im going a little off track here) was actually really nice. We all woke up without having to be dragged out of bed, and we had a nice breakfast in the backyard. As I said before, the day at the school was crazy, and now I am sitting in the wonderful backyard with the mountains behind me, blogging to all of you. I wish I could make a CD of all the sounds that have become normal to me....... roosters, goats, kids, and bodas. I really dont have much more to say...... oh, tomorrow we are spending the day at the clinic so we can hand out the drugs we bought. Also, we decided to ask Milton to come along for the safari. It should be A good time! ~Mandi~

Saturday we spent about 5 hours on a bus to go to Fort Portal. The ride wasnt as bad as I thought it would be, and we are staying at a house that is down the street from the high school. We went on over there after dinner to say hi to the girls that are there because they live there. Sunday we spent like 4 hours at church (yea i know, not really my kinda party). It wasnt too bad, there was a lot of singing and dancing, it was just a little intense, especially since we were in the front row haha. Afterwards, we visited the school again and talked to the students about all sorts of stuff. It was a nice time and it was great to be able to get to know a lot of them on a personal level. Today there was a huge black spider in the bedroom when we woke up. Not cool. We went over to the school to start building the chicken coupe and then we painted a couple of rooms. We were able to use some of our extra money to buy medicine that we are going to take over to the clinic on wednesday, and then w...

Today was much better than the first. It was overcast so the working conditions were great. It had rained a little before we got there so it was way humid and we were all sweating a lot. We had a great lunch and then it was back to work for a while, and then we played a bunch of games with the kids and we came back to Herbs for some dinner (which was amazing). I really didnt want to leave the elementary school. I wish we were spending the 2 full weeks with them. Tomorrow we will be leaving Kampala for 5 days and will be going to Ft. Portal to work with the high school. We will be staying with Idah and Henry. We met Idah tonight, and we are in good company. I am not sure when the next time I'll be able to get to a computer will be, but please keep reading! ~Mandi~

We arrived at the school around 10:30 I believe and we totally amazed at how all of the children were so excited to see us! They came running up to us and started grabbing our hands, and giving us high fives and they were just so happy...... which of course made US happy. We went in to their main teaching room where we introduced ourselves and presented to them all of the supplies we brought for them. Then we got right to work! We helped build a latrine for the new building they are going to have, so we were moving clay bricks down a hill, going to get water to help mix cement, and also move buckets of cement to the site. It was really a good workout for all of us. At around 1:30 we went back up to the school to have lunch. They were so nice and made a really good lunch for us that had rice, avacado, potato and all sorts of other really good Ugandan food. After lunch we split up into groups and I was in the group that did some art with the second graders. We all drew pictures on the ch...

I cant believe that we are here! Yesterday was the longest day of my life.... . but it was worth it. We ot picked up at the airport and it took about 40 minutes to get to where we are stayin. The nightlife here is truly incredible!!! I made a new friend outside last night, and everyone here is just so friendly! It was really hot last night, and i must say that its wierd to be sleeping inside of a huge net haha. Ellen and I were woken up at 7 by the 2 roosters that reside nextdoor, and we had to stand in a bucket while we showered! It was so funny, but we just finished breakfast (which ws wonerful) over at Herb's house, and the guys went to exchange some of the money and go to the pharmecy. Today we are going to go to the source of the Nile, then we're going to get some lunch, and have a little orientation before we have to go pick up Jaki around 7ish. I cant wait to see her! ~Mandi~

Thanks to everyone who's checking in on me haha..... I still cant believe that in less than 24 hours I will be getting on a plane! I dont have a laptop to bring with me on the trip, but I am going to try and update this as often as possible while I am out there. I will be coming home on Monday, June 28th.... Wish me luck! ~Mandi~