First Days

Hello from Uganda,

Sorry it has taken me a couple days to get on here... The Internet isn't exactly the speediest and I haven't really had a spare moment to jump on!

First few days:
Well, my flights went quite well, and I think the compression socks worked like magic (good thing because they were almost $40)! I arrived in Entebbe around 8:15 and was picked up by my "hotel" liason. Said "hotel" was quite a site!! They then told me that they would be taking me elsewhere...which I was a little nervous about since I was traveling alone, but I was taken to a bungalow type hotel that worked out OK. Some folks from URF picked me up in the morning and we drove approx. 4 hours to Masaka. Meanwhile I had my first Ugandan meal called a "rolex" which is a fried egg rolled up in chapati (flat) bread. It was delicious!

The landscape here is quite stunning with all the lush greenery, and words cannot do it justice. I’m taking as many pictures as I can, but unfortunately will probably not be able to upload them from here. Perhaps I will get into the city and give it a whirl.

There are 5 other girls here, 2 from Vancouver BC, and the rest from the states. All of them seem to be great people, however most are in their early 20’s, which makes me feel quite old! The 2 Canadian girls are 24, and the others are 19, 20, & 21. We are located about 1 km to the nearest small village and about 30 km from Masaka, which is the nearest large town. There is a brand new secondary school on site here (comparable to 7th, 8th, and 9th grades, I think) and the first day of operation was Monday. Interesting to say the least…all the teachers have yet to arrive, but will hopefully do so in the next few days (I believe there will be 4 total). I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to be doing quite yet, but I suppose time will tell as I get more comfortable with my surroundings.

Some interesting occurrences/observations:
1) I’m not quite sure what the use of the blinker entails here, but drivers tend to use them often!
2) Meals consist of rice, noodles, plantains, sometimes beans/beef, and cabbage…carbs, carbs, carbs! -- Good thing I brought a jump rope and we do a lot of walking!
3) Pit Latrines are most difficult! We all know that I have bad knees, which makes squatting to go to the bathroom quite a site (especially when you have to aim!).

More to come later!