Dear Mom, Remember I am Still Alive Part 3

May 29th

Michelle here: Sunday was my adventure day to write to you about.

As you may have read in the last blog entry, I am pretty sure I broke my nose on Lyndsay's knee during the rafting trip. So as a nurse in a third world country and should i mention without ice, I needed to pull in other resources for extra healing measures. I decided that the more blood flow to my source of injury (aka my nose) would promote and speed up the healing process. Sooooooo I went BUNGEE JUMPING!!!! I thought being strapped by my ankles and falling  for 145feet upside down would definitely get the blood pumping.  So, I must explain… We started our morning off by waking up at the hostel, having our first warm shower since we have been here, and I actually shaved my legs for the first time since we have been here. It felt soo great. Then we hopped onto the bodas (our main mode of transportation these days…who would have ever thought) and headed to Adrift, the bungee jumping company. I signed my life away, was weighed, but then had a couple of people ahead of me to watch do the jump before I took off.  The whole time, Lyndsay and Kristen are still trying to convince me NOT to go. For every single person that jumps, Lynds is like "No, they are not really going to jump. No they're not. Are they really? OMG, I think I am so nervous for you that I am going to throw up." I couldn't take it anymore so I just set off to climb the tower. I climbed up 6 stories to look out over the Nile River at the most beautiful hillside and gorgeous riverside view ever not to mention that the jump is off this cliff side (the whole way down next to jagged rocks). The sun was shining brighter than ever and I could not have picked a better day (picture prove it and will be posted). I waited for my turn (and I wont actually admit it out loud but i was slightly nervous) and while in line, I met the coolest couple from Sweden ever and they have convinced me to take my next trip there to visit. Then it was my turn to take a seat in the creepy Gollum looking chair and get strapped in. Issac and Will were/are my new best friends. Mom, Issac is a native Ugandan and Will is Canadian and both of then have been in the jumping, rock climbing, rafting business for many years. So after getting the whole speal, I waddled up to the ledge and literally felt like I was about to walk the plank (Kiffy: too long). Will told me to grab the roof ledge as I came closer to the edge. Then joking said, "Well, I mean if you can? You are pretty short." Ummm…thanks Will. exactly what I need to be hearing as Im about to DECIDE to jump off this cliff. The seconds were about to be counted down and then the decision would have to be made, would i or would i not? I must say I have never felt anything like this before. It is such an out of body experience that makes you feel like you don't have a heart or a brain for that matter but the adrenaline is pumping so fast and so hard that you can feel it in your toes (yes the ones that are wiggling on the ledge). I just stood there looking out and wondering what it would look like it i looked down (Will specifically told me not to look down when i got up there). And then here it comes… three, two, one, bungeeeeeee

He told me what to do, how to make it look pretty, what not to do, and to just remember forever what this feeling feels like… Well, I can tell you now that I didn't remember or do anything that he told me to do besides the fact that I will  remember the amazing yet dreadful feeling of falling for those 4-7seconds FOREVER. It sounds corny but I have literally never felt like before. Then SPLASH, I hit the water and sprung right back into the sky. After a couple more bounces and flinging all over, two men lowered me into a paddle boat and untied me. It was over so fast but was Amazing! The dramatic Lyndsay and Kristen jumped into my arms as I returned and told me I was to never do that again… little do they know that that was just the beginning. 

We then returned to town and shopped around the market looking for gum boots, sunglasses, jewelry, and bags but with little luck we found nothing of the sort just the craziness of every boda driver asking you where you want to go, jelly fish and squid swarming with flies and old American junk that has been left behind by other tourists for sale, and people everywhere! Too much for us simple Americans so we decided to head back. We took yet another joyous ride on a matatu cramming 17 people and a couple of little ones on laps. We arrived in Mbale where we were suppose to meet our driver Jowali for the drive back to Bududa. Jowali is a fine human being but his english is something we will just have to work on. 1 hour and 15mins later, Jowali picked us up and took to the market to pick up some basic grocery and supplies for the house (which was another experience in itself) and then we loaded back into the car for what was suppose to be an uneventful and easy hour drive home. 20 mins into our car ride, Lyndsay turns to me and mentions that she really enjoys the music here in Uganda but she feels like he has played the same song over and over again and again… we then proceeded to count the number of times he played the same THREE songs. Count it - 13times!! It had rained quite a bit this weekend and the roads were the proof. 

We arrived back at the house after such a long day of travel and we never thought to ourselves that we would actually be soo happy to be back here. 

Clinic this week and some lesson plans on their way. We are also working on a weekend retreat for P7 girls with Carolyn through the Arlington School… more details soon!  

Thrilled Michelle is still alive after her bungee adventure!!!!

Dear Mom, Remember I am Still Alive Part 2

May 28

Rafting day! Kristen here… Moms, remember, we are all still alive …and there were many safety precautions in place! ;-)

We woke up after a sleep infused with dreams of Rihanna and 50 Cent music… We had some coffee outside and met our new friend Antonia. She has a heart for Africa and is back in Uganda to complete her undergrad in International studies. Her boyfriend also just happens to be one of the guides at the rafting company. she also loves rafting and has guided before in California so it was almost as if we had 2 guides!

We make it to the Nile and our group is: Katie (the other FIMRC volunteer that was with us), Michelle, Lyndsay, Emily (living a year in Nairobi as a writer), Miles (friend of Emily's visiting for a few weeks), Antonia and our trusty guide, Paul (Antonia's boyfriend). The Nile is an interesting river in that it is really wide and quite calm in most areas except for the spots where there are rapids (we had a total of 8 on our full day float). So a good majority of our day was slowly floating down the Nile. The water is unusually warmer than most rivers you can raft which is why you can raft Class 5's over here without any rafting experience (you can't in the states). It's also much safer because there aren't as many rocks around the rapids. Paul gets us all in the raft and immediately tells us all to jump into the water. We look confused for a minute and then do as he says. Paul runs us through a series of drills: get back in the boat, tip the boat over, swim out from the tipped boat, swim completely under the boat, etc. I have been rafting before and there was NEVER this extensive of training. But I went along with it. Lyndsay somehow managed to knee Michelle in the face potentially breaking her nose. There was a pop and some blood…but no x-ray to confirm or omit.

So we start out and basically Paul keeps saying stuff like "Yeah, well, it's pretty likely we'll flip the boat on this one" or "Don't worry if you fall out on this one." I, of course, ended up falling out that first time. So we cruise along in the morning and have a great time with all the rafting and eventually we are nearing a Class 6 rapid. Paul starts to get all serious and snippy with us since he doesn't want to mess up. Basically we would all be in big trouble if he doesn't dock us in time to jump out of the raft so we can walk around the class 6 and put the boat in elsewhere.

At the bottom of the Class 6 we put the raft in and immediately have a rapid that is named "The Bad Spot" (with good reason!!!!). Paul is giving us our pre-rapid instructions and saying stuff like "When (notice how he doesn't say If) we flip, don't hold on to the boat! Just swim to the right and get a safety kayaker! Just get to the bottom where there is a calm pool and we'll get back in the boat!" So we are watching the rafts get back in the water and it's like…one boat…oh ok, they're go- FLIP. 8 people in the water. 2nd boat so far, so goo- FLIP. 16 people in the water. 3rd boat made it down in one piece. 4th boat…. FLIP. 24 swimmers. Next was us. Paul is semi freaking out. To me, it's definitely NOT GOOD when your guide is freaking out about the rapid you're about to take on.

So we start off and Paul is yelling "FORWARD FORWARD FORWARD HARDER" and I'm thinking things are pretty good so far… we're traveling down the rapid pass and then it was warp speed…we FLIPPED over. All 7 of us were flushed into the toliet bowl of a rapid. Swirling and trying to surface, I was panicking surrounded by white, whirling water (which is of course the first thing they tell you not to do…). I made it to the top, took a deep breath, thanked God for my life jacket and was sucked back under the water. I resurfaced a second later right by Paul who helped me to a safety raft and I was pulled to stable ground. Lyndsay and Michelle were both grabbed by safety kayakers and placed in rafts. (Later on finding out Michelle took in way too much water and is now growing parasitic pneumonia (yes, it is a newly discovered disease….). All of our raft was accounted for and eventually all made it back to our own raft for a much needed break of freshly picked pineapple (Words don't even describe how good the pineapple is here!)

The afternoon continued with another half-raft spill. We took on a wave sideways and half of us spilled out (almost including our guide too!)… which made it my and Miles' 3rd spill of the day (I happen to be unlucky when it comes to what side of the boat I'm on and which side plummets into the water). The final rapid series sounded intense. Paul said, "Ok, we can either take it on sideways and probably flip to the side or try to go over top of it and flip over backwards but we're probably gonna swim." Great…. another quick prayer for the life preserver! So as a group we decide to hit the wave head on and try to go over top of it and we take off. The whole time, I'm looking ahead and anticipating a huge, full boat flip…but it never happens! We conquered the last rapid! (Apparently, it had nothing to do with our AWESOME- which they are-rafting skills but because the water level has been extremely high).

The very fabulous rafting day ended how every evening on a river should, with a BBQ and beer. Another delicious meal and the drinks tasted fabulous! That night we hung out with our new friends Paul, Antonia, Emily, Miles, Nash and a few others we met at our hostel. And we didn't mind the Rihanna music mix so much that night! ;-) We went to bed absolutely exhausted from our time on the river!

 

Dear Mom, Remember I am still alive

May 27, Friday 

Today we started out in the clinic working with a pregnant woman's group. The women would come and a health history would be obtained, get their blood pressure taken, have a review of immunizations, receive a tetanus booster if needed, have a midwife palpate their abdomen and assess fetal heart rate, hand out folic acid and iron supply to last them the month, and give anti-parastic medications if needed. Women would come as early as 3 or 4 months pregnant or as late as 7 or 8. To think how adamant we are on prenatal care… We really enjoyed watching the educators discuss proper nutrition and health maintenance with the women. Through a translator we obtain health histories and assisted in giving immunizations and dispensing and administering medications. We are excited that we will be able to participate in these sessions several times throughout our stay here. We enjoyed a quick snack as we do everyday around 11 or 12 of "chapate" a fried flour tortilla. We then set out on our first weekend excursion to Jenja, Uganda for white water rafting! We will usually be working Monday through Friday and are free to travel on the weekends, and encouraged to do so. Lisa and Doug are huge at helping us set up transportation, hostels to stay at, etc. One of the FIMRC drivers Juwali drove us the hour and a half from Bumwalukani to Mbale (the closet large city to where we are staying).  And then the true adventure began. Imagine being dropped off in a loud, crowded, dirty, foreign New York City/Chicago, where everyone speaks broken English, there are men and boys walking around trying to sell you food, drinks, fake leather purses, chicken on a stick, or dead chicken with full on feathers hanging upside down, fried corn, fried bananas, etc. We were then on a mission to find a matatu, aka a Ugandan 12 passenger van/taxi, which they of course cram full of up to 19 or 20 people. And heaven forbid the matatu leave with 1 or 2 seats empty. No we had to wait for an hour sitting in the back 2 rows, crammed with bags and Ugandans, windows open, hoping for just a moment of cool breeze. Once we finally started moving, we made frequent stops along the way of our almost 4 hour trip, I mean, who doesn't want to stop on the side of the road and watch 4 Ugandan men pee on the side of the street? Or have boys come up and poke you through the matatu windows yelling "Muzongo!", meaning "foreigner in Lugandan. At this point Michelle was attempting to play a quick version of Settlers of Cattan (a board game for those of you who don't know) while spotting cows, pigs, sheep, brick factories, etc. We decided the cows here are a special breed of "cowmel", an obvious mix between a cow and a camel, due to the large humps they all seem to have. Its somewhat of a Lion King safari here as Michelle puts it, birds tending to pose on these humps for hours at a time. After quite the cultural experience on our 3 1/2 hour matatu ride, we arrived in Jenja. Only to then have to hail down two bodas to make our way to our hostel for the night. We arrive to the hostel to be met by "Nash" a Kenyan man, with a British accents, and an afro bigger than mine or Michelle's combined! (Impossible right?) He gets us checked in and settled into our "room", which I thought was the coolest thing in the world given that 1) Michelle and I had never stayed in a hostel before and 2) not only were we in a hostel, but we were in a hostel with mosquito netting on every bunk, how many people can say they have done that? We then chose to indulge ourselves and went out to dinner at a recommended coffee/cafe where we had fresh fish, vegetables, and pina coladas :) It was incredible. Not to mention the sit down flushing toilets and warm showers that were to come later on in the weekend. We were spoiled I admit.. After a filling dinner, and time to simply decompress after a crazy day of clinic/travel, we decided to head back to the room for an early night in preparation of rafting the NILE RIVER Class 5 Rapids in the morning! Oh, and did I forget to mention that our room happened to be conveniently located right across from the hostel bar? Literally 3 steps away? And did I mention that Usher, 50 cent, Rhianna, and PINK are all very popular in Uganda? Who knew we would be lulled to sleep by bumping techno beets until midnight? Now mom, Mrs. Place, and Mrs, Fischer, please bear with me, and remember as you are reading the following entries.. we are still alive..

This group manages to find us every single day at the clinic, it took us all of 2 seconds to fall in love with them

Walking home from the clinic

First Boda Experience

May 26th

First BODA experience

This morning, we woke up yet again to the moo of the neighbor's cow, the cockle of the roosters, and the laughter of school children walking to school. We had our typical breakfast of hard boil eggs, bread, and jelly and then we were off. Not kidding you, off on our first boda ride. And as you non-Ugandian may not know, a boda is a motorcycle that they use simply as a taxi service. As an ER nurse and a daughter of an orthopedic spine surgeon, I swore on my life to never ride on the back of a motorcycle and that was in the States where there are rules. Rules like: you stay on that side of the road and Ill stay on mine, the right of way to other cars or pedestrians, or how about a speed limit. Such rules in Uganda do not exist. But that day has come and gone… and now we are women. It was quite the experience and a bumpy ride. Holding on for dear life and weaving in and out of traffic, we made our 30min trek up the mountains and through the swampy streets of Bududa to our first teaching site. We were asked to teach P1-P3s (age 7-10) basic sex ed and appropriate manners in public. We then broke into groups of boys and girls for the older kids, P3-P7 (age 11-16) to go more in depth on the reproductive system, puberty changes and basic hormones, pregnancy, and STDs. The kids looked at us like we were aliens and we were not sure if it was for the pure fact that we were Mazongas (white person/alien in Ugandian), just for the slight language barrier, or that they barely knew what the word "sex" was or where babies came from. This may come to you as a shock but this is unnavigated territory in this culture and most of the children did not even have a basic understanding of this. We had a question box for anonymous questions, which taught us all a lot on what to focus on more in our future endeavors. It was a huge learning experience for both us and the children, not to mention a complete blast. We spent all morning up there, hanging out with the kids and taking pictures of them, with them. Every single one of them wanted to see themselves on our digital camera screen after… like it was some crazy phenomena. Then the P1s started singing and dancing for us (videos will be uploaded on Facebook this weekend). They are sooo adorable and we loved every second of it. Boda trip #2 took us back to the clinic to finish out another day of planning and working on teaching plans for what may come next. On our way back from the clinic, we walked with a group of boys from Arlington School (school associated with  FIMRC) laughing and messing around with them the whole way home. 

We are having a blast and really enjoying our time here. Almost completely our first week here, we are still in complete shock of all the blank stares that we get;  going on runs through town, walking back from the clinic, every encounter with the towns people. Kristen made a good (not to be cocky) analogy that it is like the Royal Wedding and we are just the parade of the royal family walking through town. I mean I stopped what i was doing to watch the Royal Wedding and they do about the same. They stop what they are doing, stare, some children wave and ask "How are youuuu?" but most just stare until we greet them with a smile or Malembai aka Hello in Ugandian. I went for a run today and the children chased me for a good 1/2 mile, then proceeded to make an obstacle courses for me to run through and jump over. They were quite impressed with my hurdling skills, i must say. It is still pretty entertaining but it is only the first week. 

We are missing and praying for everyone back in the States and still appreciate every prayer and thought for our safe journeys. Thank you and We love you.

The Ugandan people are so resourceful, look at the things you can accomplish when you recycle!

Mt. Nusu

Today was all about putting things in perspective while climbing a steep mountain called Mt. Nusu, with dirt roads, slightly muddy from rains last night, thin air due to the elevation, oh and did I mention it was 3000 feet high? We paid a Ugandan man name Julius who works at the clinic to be our guide up the mountain, little did we all know what we were getting ourselves into. Julius led Kristen, Michelle, and I along with 5 other volunteers, Kristen, Jordan, and Sarah (who are all going to be seniors at Virginia Tech in the fall who unfortunately leave on Saturday) and Lena and Tom (two faculty from LaSalle University in Boston.) We were literally climbing straight up the side of the mountain, legs burning, huffing and puffing, sweating bullets, tripping, falling, and the high elevation here made everything that much harder. The hike from the clinic, up the mountain, and back took us 5 hours. Now perspective.. people hike this route every single day, in no shoes, carrying baskets, fruit, wooden beams, etc on their heads, no water to drink, and they barely sweat or even lose breath. We have paved sidewalks, expensive running shoes, clean water as far as the eye can see, a/c or a fan for when you're hot and sweaty, our blessings are truly abundant. Instead of driving to Walgreens when you feel sick to get Motrin or Immonium, you have to first brave this mountain while you are already feeling terribly. As we continued to rise the mountain we assumed we would no longer see homes, or people for that matter, and boy were we wrong. There were dirt and clay homes scattered along our "path" (a relative word really compared to the wooded, muddy, not cleared trails we were climbing on a majority of the time), along with people working in the fields and farms they have created on the sides of these steep mountains. They would all smile, say hi, and stare as 8 white people continued to climb up the side of the mountain sweating and out of breath. What is comes down to is this: We cannot express to you how lucky we are to live in America. Nothing here is easy, you see 6 year old girls climbing up steep muddy hills carrying canteens of water on top of their heads, not playing in the safety of their own home with their Barbies and Disney princess toys. 

When we finally got back down, we spent some time finalizing visual aids for our teaching project tomorrow, then made the 20 minute walk back home, making a detour down to one of the rivers. Upon arriving back to the guesthouse we were met by Katie, a volunteer who will be here for the remainder of our time, I believe she is staying through July 19th. She is a sophomore at Notre Dame university majoring in pre-med and anthropology. Kristen, Michelle, and I are going to be doing some traveling on the weekends and hope she will be able to join us. It rains everyday here, a slight drizzle, but today we had our first real downpour and it was refreshing and so soothing. Elyssa, one of the volunteers who has been here since September and is leaving on Saturday made homemade banana bread today (remember we have no oven here so she did it in a steam bath type set up that she found out about in a peace corp cookbook) along with homemade flatbread and guacamole. So good :) Tasted like a little bit of home. Our plan is to copy down recipes from her before she leaves so we can bring word back to the States :) All in all, we are all doing well, excited for what the next few weeks will bring. Hope all is well back home!

First Day at the Clinic...

It is around 6:45pm here and Kristen, Michelle, and I are worn out after a full day in the clinic today. We each slept in separate beds last night, believe it or not, had there been a full bed we most likely would've snuggled :) we awoke around 7:45 this morning, had a breakfast of boiled eggs and coffee and headed out on a 20 minute walk on a dirt path up the mountain to the clinic. Let me tell you a little more in detail about the clinic, staff, and how things work now that we have had a tad more orienting.

Dr. Lisa, one of four pediatricians in Eastern Uganda, has been in Uganda on and off since 2008. She originally came to Uganda with FIMRC as a volunteer for one month while in medical school, fell in love with the country, and hasn't been able to stay away for more than a month at a time since (I wish I was as strong as she is), leaving all her family back in Colorado. She has single handedly devised the clinic into what it is today. There is an office where they are able to do work from laptops when internet is working, financing, education modules, etc. We shadowed the staff today to get a general lay of the land and flow of the clinic. There is a basic triage room where a nurse obtains vitals signs, height, weight, and chief complaint. It is then up to the nurse to determine if the patient can go straight to the lab for testing, or if they need to see the clinical officer (the equivalent to a PA) who will further investigate. There is a medication room where medications are dispensed for anything from pneumonia to malaria. For severe malaria treatment they start IV's and give a loading dose of antibiotics over 4 hours, then sending the pt home on oral medications. The lab runs tests for malaria (got to see a +malaria blood smear today!), HIV, urinalysis, hemoglobin counts for HIV positive patients, blood glucose, and stool studies. They have quite the system down, seeing an average of 90-100 patients a day. The clinic runs from 9-5 Monday thru Friday and 9-2 on Saturday. People walk hours with their children to come for healthcare which is free for children, while adults are charged a small fee for a visit and medications if needed. Children are the priority and adults are usually not seen until after 2 pm. Due to the high volume of patients, some may not be seen in that day and must return the next day in hopes of receiving care.

So what is it we are going to be doing? EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION! There are several different groups that meet at the clinic to which we will be presenting (mens groups, womens groups, young womens groups, HIV+ patient groups, counseling for parents of children with HIV). We will be presenting on topics such as nutrition, sanitation, sexual education, etc. We will be doing home visits to meet with some of the groups, working in partnership with the school associated to the clinic, Arlington Academy of Hope, and several other activities. On Thursday we are going to be presenting to over a 100 children in gradeschool discussing sexual education. It is a scary thing to think some of these children are in their teens and don't know that sex causes a child or the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. We were speaking with Wilson, the coordinator of Community Outreach, today and he told us girls usually start getting married around the age of 13, boys the age of 16. On average, couples have 6-8 children, and some as many as 10-12, polygamy is also common here. We also spent a lot of today sorting through our 150lbs of medical supplies! We cannot thank you enough, and the staff here cannot thank you enough for all your contributions, donations, and helping us pull together supplies from work. They are truly a Godsend and people here use everything. To my Glennon folk & Mrs. Place, we counted a total of 313 of those small silver scissors! And yes we had to count EVERYTHING! Every steri strip, tegaderm, cloraprep, betadiene (which yes conveniently did explode during our flight), saline flush, t-connector, etc was counted and inventoried. But nonetheless, huge thank you's from Uganda for all your help!

The scenery here is beautiful, we are surrounded by lush green mountains, tons of trees, its so picturesque. The landscape is painted with mud/clay homes, people walking the streets in dresses of all colors, riding motorcycles, and our white skin of course :) well kristen & michelle at least. It is amazing to me how such poverty can still be so beautiful. The children here are nothing but smiles, and constantly asking "How are you? How are you?". People at the clinic speak decent english, but most of the towns people do not. Given that we are in a rural area and several of the children do not go to school, English is not as wide spread here. 

I am taken back by the way that people live, granted they do not know any better, but I cannot keep from asking myself, "What did I do for God to bless me with the life I have? Why am I living safely and securely in the US while thousands of people are living here with one set of clothing they wear for years, no shoes, women making menstrual pads out of towels and old school uniforms, little to no education, and a life expectancy of 40 years. 40 years, wow. Death often occurs here if not due to HIV, due to malaria, dehydration, sepsis, pneumonia, and other infection. Things we never contemplate worrying about here in the US. Not even 2 days here and we have been slapped in the face with the reminder to count your blessings & everyday is a gift from God, embrace it, embrace the people you cross in it. Until next time..

On the road again...

Kristen here. Lyndsay, Michelle and I collaboratively compiled this blog entry last night and then we had a "glitch" in the internet and lost it. Ugh. So… we'll continue writing them in word document and posting later. Carrying on with our trip….

We last told you about Lambert…. since then we left for NY without problem and then onward to Brussels. That flight was great. Each seat had a small television monitor and on demand movies, television shows and games. It definitely occupied our attention for the 7 hour flight. In the Brussels airport we met some men working for Living Water International which is an organization my church has big ties with. They were headed to Rwanda and eventually would be near our area in Uganda. You should really check out LWI's website and mission. Very cool. 

We had to go through customs again in which Michelle, the Smuggler, had her toothpaste and pocket knife confiscated. They also wondered why she had 25 beanie babies in her bag.  (mom- they tried to steal my snack mix but I told them it was essential for my health.)The next plane wasn't as luxurious, and was an even longer trip. I was glad I spent the majority of it in a benadryl/jet lag coma. The plane stopped in Kigali, Rwanda before our final destination of Entebbe. I think we were on that plane for a total of 10 hours. I was close to slitting my wrist near the end (when I wasn't in my benadryl coma). Ok… so I was just really excited to get off the plane. But more so because of what we were about to embark upon. We had been trying to get to Uganda for over 3 days and it was finally within my grasp.

We de-planed. Sailed through customs and met Joie, our driver. We stayed in a "hotel" in Kampala over night. Lyndsay said it looked like something out of the "Saw" movie series, but Michelle and I both think it was….rustic. There was a bed, a mosquito net, and a "latrine" down the hall. To our disbelief, the toilet was a hole in the ground, sure there was a door to shut so no one saw, but a hole in the ground none the less. Not exactly your Hilton hotel…or even a Motel 6 for that matter. We all hated that we had separate rooms so we ended up snuggled together in one full sized bed. Did I mention how much I love these 2 girls? 3 ambiens (thank you, Dr. Place!) later we were all fast asleep.

The next day we drove from Kampala to Mbale (Mom and Dad- that place you circled on the atlas). I was in and out of jet-lagged consciousness during most of the trip and didn't feel car sick once. Please be impressed.  We stopped for lunch in Mbale before heading to our final destination, the Bududa district. We are very close to the Kenyan border. In fact, at one time Joie pointed to a mountain and said "right over that hill is Kenya!". 

We were welcomed by the Brazilian Doug, the FIMRC coordinator and fiance of Dr. Lisa (who is the pediatrician on site). He immediately fed us a TON of information about the country, the organization, Lisa's handwork, policies, yada yada yada. I was slightly overwhelmed (jet lag didn't help). We saw the clinic briefly and got settled in our guest house.

Our guest house (there will be photos to come, I hope…) has running water when the well is full. Lucky for us, it's still the rainy season! the 3 of us our in one room with bunks. There is a flushing toilet for number one which is in the same room as the shower, cold water only. The toilet is only to be flushed at the end of the day. The latrines out back, again a very small hole in the ground that needs foot adjustments for multi-duties. We are all contemplating whether intermittent bouts of constipation might actually be a good thing. We didn't come here for deluxe accommodations though, we have bigger plans...

Round 2 of Lambert Airport

Less than 48 hours later, we are back at the airport hoping that all flights are on time as scheduled. We unloaded all 12 bags out of Melissa (Kristen's mom)'s car and proceeded inside to check our bags (which of course we no longer had 2 free checked bags…thank you, stupid Continental Air…). Kristen oh so gracefully managed to knock over a sign and several line dividers while maneuvering her luggage. The domino affect received many stares. After a few shifts (and throwing away several beanie babies) all of our luggage managed to be under 50 pounds each.

Into security and we start stripping. Literally. Shoes off, jackets off, bags off. Lyndsay, the half hispanic, sometimes confused to be half Black, girl walks through without problem. Kristen, the blonde whitey, gets "mega-scanned" and then frisked down (apparently they think her boobs are actually bombs). Michelle, the Truman show main character (see previous blog entry), gets mega scanned and then has issues with her bag since they start to open her carry-ons and look through them. Michelle was smuggling liquids onto the plane in the form of OFF mosquito repellant. 

We currently sit at a bar, having bloody marys… and our first flight is only 40 minutes delayed. :-)

(Please note: we are writing these as we go but may have to post them later depending on wi-fi availability and cost!)

The Truman Show

Michelle has been convinced for some time that secretly her life is a current episode of the "Truman show". For those of you unfamiliar with this movie starring Jim Carrey, the Truman show follows the everyday life of a middle aged man name Truman. What Truman doesn't know is that his entire life is full of scripted characters, detailed sets, and preconstructed conflict and resolution. That being said, of course our flight was delayed 4 hours when we arrived to the airport yesterday, after 3 flights changes within 24 hours prior to today, completely blowing our 40 minute layover in Chicago out of the water. And of course our flight was delayed due to something as catastrophic as low cloud coverage, I mean come on, who else other than a Hollywood director could come up with that one. Needless to say, we owe a very patient United Airlines flight agent named Donna several alcoholic beverages of her choice. 2 hours later, we were leaving the airport on foot, with 12 bags of clothing and medical supplies in towe. Michelle at this point was convinced they simply needed more time to set up extra cameras and filming crews in Uganda. So we started the morning of May 18th thinking we would be well on our way to Uganda in a few hours, however we finished the day with Kristen at a St. Louis Cardinals game and Michelle and I buying beer and pizza at a St. Louis Schnucks with our passports.. At this point we were at a mere loss for words. Kristen called us after speaking with one of her mentors through our church and said Robin had one motto and one motto alone in her previous trip to Africa, "T.A.B,".. "That's Africa Baby!" Playing by the beat of their own drum, it'll happen when it happens. Plans have obviously changed and we are now going to be leaving (fingers crossed) tomorrow, May 20th, arriving in Uganda late Saturday night. Someone send a memo to Chicago and get their cloud coverage under control so it doesn't totally cramp our flight plans yet again. We will keep everyone updated in the coming days and hopefully our next entry will be from outside the St. Louis City limits :)

21 hours & counting

Trying to get this site up & running prior to our departure. 21 hours before takeoff, not that we're counting ;) We hope to update this site frequently as a way for us to mass communicate with family & friends back home. We cannot even begin to thank you all enough for your endless love, support, and prayers over the years in our dreaming of this trip, and over the last couple months during the planning stage. God has truly blessed us beyond belief. We love you all.

I'm only one. But still, I am one.
I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
-edward.everett.hale.