Uganda....green again!!

So I arrived here in the beautiful country of Uganda on August 24th at 3:45am. The first thing I noticed when I stepped out of the airport was that there was mist in the air and I wasn't struck by an intense wave of heat the instant of first contact. I certainly wasn't in Egypt anymore. So, I went through the immigration and visa line and went and looked for someone holding my name on a sign. And there was no one. There was no one hardly waiting in the arrivals lobby. I was just thinking "Oh no...the airport taxi guy forgot about me." Luckily I had the phone number of the taxi driver that was supposed to be picking me up and one of the other taxi drivers let me use his cell phone to call him. So I called Godfrey (taxi man) and with a thick African accent he said "Oh yes madam...I am so sorry...I will be there in 10 minutes madam." Yep....an hour later (approx 5am) he showed up and drove me from Entebbe to Kampala which is about an hour away. So I arrived at the Food for the Hungry compound around 6am Sunday morning. I wasn't too tired because there is no time difference from Egypt to Uganda and I just slept for most of the flight. So, unlike my classmates who had flown the day before from the States, I was fortunate enough not to get jet lag.

I should tell you what I'm doing here in Uganda and where I'm living, with whom, what I'm eating, assurance that I'm brushing my teeth every day, drinking enough water, etc:) So I am doing a semester abroad program here in Kampala, Uganda with a Christian organization called Food for the Hungry. They are an NGO that is here working to develop sustainable living and education for people throughout Eastern Africa and many other parts of the world. They have a compound here with an office and a guest house on it and my fellow classmates and I are living in the guest house. There are 12 of us college students from various colleges around the States and there is only 1 guy. Lucky guy:) Yeah so we have class for 5 weeks through Uganda Christian University here in Kampala, then we all leave September 29th for our practicums which are for 4 weeks. During our practicums we are all sent out to various villages and towns in either Uganda, Rwanda or Ethiopia to work with Food for the Hungry field workers. So I will be without communication for that month I am doing my practicum so pray for my mother that she survives this lack of communication period:)

After we are done with our practicums at the end of October, we are heading off to Rwanda where we will study there for another 5 weeks. Then, we come back to Kampala on December 6th and we will have one week here before I leave to go back home on December 14th. I am really excited for all of the things we get to do!!! I have a feeling time will go by really fast and before I know it, I will be home and it will be Christmas!!

I've already had a pretty exciting time here so far as I went white water rafting down the Nile on Saturday (feel free to ask me about because I can't possibly describe this experience properly on this blog). It was soooooo amazing...probably the most amazing adrenaline rush/experience I have ever had. Then, on Sunday we were able to go to this cultural dance and that was a really cool experience too. Well, I promise I will stay more faithful in updating this blog since I had a long stretch between posts even though so much has gone on. If you have more questions about Egypt or Uganda feel free to ask me!! I love to talk about my experiences thus far!!