African Safari: All Inclusive . . . oh, except water.

Me and my chimp trek guide

I was only twenty feet away from these guys!

Mom chillin' in the tree

AFRICAN SAFARI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So cool. So fun. So recommended.

First off, thank you Mom for encouraging me to go on the safari this past week- It was incredible to experience and I was able to get the my much needed mental cleansing :)

I took off with a group of 6 other girls from my team and headed out to Murchison Falls National Park for a 3 day safari. This park is the largest National Park in the country of Uganda and it is gorgeous, vivacious, and serene all at the same time. Heaven with monkeys.

Our schedule: (written and narrated by the lovely backpackers hostel team)

Day 1: Depart backpackers hostel at 8:30 am sharp and drive to Murchison Falls National Park. Stop over at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary for Rhino trekking which will take approximately 1-2 hours. After the trekking we will head down to take a nature walk down to Karuma falls which is also a spectacular continuation of the mighty river Nile, the falls have very stunning views with a nice fresh smell of the forest around it. We will come back for lunch after which we will head on to Murchison Falls Safari Camp for dinner and overnight. Accommodations in permanent tents.

Day 2: Get up at 5:45 am for breakfast so that by 6:20 we can be ready to start off the game drive. Everybody must be on time as it is best to do the game drive as early as possible so that we can catch the wild as it starts feeding. Being early will give such quite a big advantage to view as much animals as possible. The giraffe being the main attraction in this park are really spectacular site as you travel across the park towards Lake Albert where you will see hundreds of hippos lazing in the waters. We often find a group of lions lying around after a long night hunting. The game drive normally finishes at about 12:30 pm when we cross the ferry to head on for lunch.

At 2:30 pm we get on the boat for the trip up the river where you are sure to see many hippos, crocodiles, elephants, buffalo, bush pigs, and monkeys. When the boat gets to the falls you get out and walk up to the top of the falls. The scenery whilst walking (I love how they speak) up is great with fantastic views of the falls. When you get to the top of the falls. (I call it "Satan's Waterfall") you may sit for some time and take in the beautiful scenery while waiting for the sun to set over the River Nile. Meanwhile the driver will have driven around to the top of the falls where he will meet the ranger and walk down to the bottom of the falls to meet you. After seeing the sunset over the falls travel to Bomu for dinner and overnight. Accommodations in grass huts.

Day 3: Get up at 6 am and have breakfast then at 7 am head of for chimp trekking session. The guides are fantastic and have a good knowledge of the forest with many stories to tell. After returning for lunch head off to Kampala and head home!

*I had about 20 more pictures to post, but it's quite the process to load on this computer and so I will add more when I get home :)

I really loved the safari, but the chimp trek was my favorite. Nothing like spending the morning meditating in a tropical rain forest and then tracking down chimpanzees for the afternoon. Not too bad. Not bad at all.

toodles.

SHOES FOR TOMORROW . . . OR MAYBE IN A COUPLE OF YEARS!!

Just a forewarning: this may or may not be a happy post. I have consumed a lot of time with the TOMS project over the last 3 weeks. I have been working with my friend Kevin to finish a 14 page application that must be submitted to TOMS shoes company for approval. We are requesting from TOMS 170,000 pairs of shoes to be distributed to Uganda within the next year, hopefully in time for the next HELP International team in April. It is NO SMALL task filling out the paperwork and with good reason because there are a lot of logistics to assess and many problems we must have solutions for.

-We had to first talk about our organization as HELP International and give NGO verification, determine who we are going to give the shoes to and why. Last years team did assessments of over 200 schools and we believe we will be using that data. We also have met with several NGO partners to see if they would like to be a part of the distribution once we get the shoes. It takes several hours that turn in to several days that turn into several week . . . to meet and solidify partnership.
-We have also visited several sites (local villages) where we would like to distribute shoes, to assess their needs and to document cases of jiggers. We have to assess and gather data at the different distribution sites as well as give a 10% sample of the shoes sizes needed.
-We study various reasons why Uganda is in need of shoes and document severe cases to prove our point.
-In order to get the shoes shipped to Uganda and not have to pay a lot of money for taxes, it is best that HELP International as an NGO has duty-free status. First off, because HELP is not IN country year round we are not registered IN Uganda as an NGO nor do we have duty-free status because of such. I have met with the Minister of Finance several times to discuss how we can best reach duty-free status as an organization. Basically we are unable to obtain such a thing as Uganda no longer allows for this. (This way they make more money on shipments, which is hard because its for Humanitarian aid, but money is money here). Through many back roads we decided to partner with a local registered NGO we have already been doing outreach with, FREDAfrica, and we are currently in the process of filling out all of the necessary paperwork to take to the Minister of Finance to achieve duty-free status for them. In talking to another NGO, Noah's Ark Ministry (an AMAZING orphanage in Mukono) we spoke with the head person Peit and he has agreed to store our shoes at his site. He is originally from Holland and has been running his work in Uganda for 15 years. He has a definite dooms day approach to the government and the culture here and has repeatedly told us that we will not achieve duty-free status. Basically, the government no longer provides NGOs with duty-free status, and in rare cases where they do, the organization will end up paying the taxes regardless.

So . . . now what?

I think I ask myself that question a million times a day doing development work here in Uganda. It is a long and grueling process and God must really think my patience is lacking! And trust me, it is!

We are still working on getting the paperwork for FREDAfrica done so that we can take it to the Minister of Finance in Kampala. We had to organize some bios for their website to show that we have a legitimate partnership with them if they ever become investigated.

We are meeting with the MP tomorrow in Kampala to make sure we have the paperwork correct and then we will go from there I suppose. The best we can do is meet with one of the Ministers of Education or Health to see if they will cover the cost of tax under their budget seeing that is would benefit the education and health of Ugandans. Such a messy process!

Once we get a better assessment of where we are at with the whole tax thing, we will submit the paperwork to TOMS and see if we are even approved to have the shipment of shoes sent!

I am also working with HELP's headquarters to set up a possible TOMS internship for next years team. If we get the shoes and the tax crap figured out, the distribution process will be a whole other ball game. It sounds complicated to say the least, and it is, but I believe so much in getting more Ugandans shoes and here is why:

Part of our request from the TOMS application:

1. What are the specific needs for the shoes requested? Provide detailed descriptions for each that applies:

a. Disease prevention (list diseases individually, and explain how shoes will help)

Hookworms are a major problem in many rural communities in Uganda. Most people use squat toilet latrines which tend to be extremely unsanitary, especially when people are barefoot and already have cuts on their feet. Because of the urine and fecal matter which can be all around the squat toilet latrines, hookworms can easily enter the body through the soles of feet through minor cuts. These problems could be easily prevented if people wore shoes while using the latrines.

b. Other health impacts

Jiggers, or Chigoe fleas, are often found in tropical climates, such as Uganda. They tend to live in soil and dirt, thus making them easily transmittable to impoverished children who live in unsanitary conditions, sleeping on dirt floors, and sharing living quarters with chickens and other domestic animals. Jiggers cause itching and pain, but are most dangerous because they can lead to severe inflammation, fibrosis, ulceration, lymphangitis, and gangrene, which can cause death. Through education about jiggers and if the children had shoes, jiggers could be easily prevented and treated.

c. School attendance

Children with jiggers often find it nearly impossible to walk to school due to the pain and itching. Many children actually end up dropping out of school because of the problem. In an article published last year in IPS Africa, Michael Wambi states:

“According [to] the national Department of Education, only 20 percent of pupils who enroll for primary education end up completing Grade 7, the highest level in Uganda’s primary education. Although the department does not have statistics on how many children drop out of school due to jiggers, it acknowledges that the sand fleas are a key contributor to the problem in rural areas. Some education experts believe the flea epidemic is actually hindering the country from achieving Millennium Development Goal 2 of achieving universal primary education by 2015.” http://www.ips.org/africa/2010/10/uganda-sand-fleas-neglected-threat-to-primary-education/

Not only this, but many children drop out of school due to the stigmatism placed on those with jiggers. The same article states:

“Eight-year-old Derick Ntalo from Mayuge district in Uganda’s east is one of the many jigger-infected pupils who refuses to go to school because he feels discriminated by his peers. ‘The teacher and the other children are laughing at me,’ he explains why he dropped out of Grade 3 eight months ago. Local government councillor Charles Mukiibi confirms that absenteeism at schools is high because of the stigma attached to the epidemic: ‘The children are teased because they keep on itching their hands and feet in class and cannot concentrate.’ He believes many more children would be attending primary school in eastern Uganda, if the health department would bring the epidemic under control.”

- Note: are shoes required for school attendance in this country? If so, is a specific color/style required?

It is not required for children to wear shoes to school; however, some schools that do have a dress code usually do require black shoes.

d. As an incentive to participate in another program or activity

Because jigger infestations are so highly stigmatized, it is important that this problem is addressed and solved. Shoes would help prevent jiggers, which would consequently help children to have more self confidence with their peers. With increased self esteem, children would be more likely to not only participate in school, but also extracurricular activities, such as sports.

e. Additional impacts

If we are able to simply prevent jiggers by providing shoes, we hope that can ensure education to better the lives of children and their future families.

2. Do you already collect baseline data on any of the impacts listed above (e.g. school attendance, disease prevalence, etc)? If so, please list which areas you already collect data in.

For the past two years, we have collected data from many schools throughout the Mukono District on school attendance, enrollment, test scores, and teacher attendance. Furthermore, we have collected data on the number of children with and without shoes from many schools throughout the area in which we plan to distribute shoes. We have also been able to photograph cases of jigger and foot disease that we have encountered for documentation purposes.

More than anything, you are someone here if you have a pair of shoes on your feet. Status means a lot to Ugandans and I want them to be a proud and confident people, I just want to live to see it happen. This project feels endless, but I really hope it will happen sooner than later. Patience, patience, patience.

I am busy on other projects as well and will start to downsize on the time I spend with the TOMS project. I am leaving again to the Buvuma Island next week to do HIV education, testing, and grief counseling. I am trying to better use our time their by focusing on one topic this time rather than the four we taught the last time we visited. I am nervous to do HIV testing because it is such a heavy topic and an ugly disease. I am currently in the process of setting up logistics for the trip itself, gather the necessary resources (education tools, HIV testing kits, and condoms) and I also need to find a volunteer medical professional to assist us. I would hate for anything to go wrong or to misdiagnose. Definitely not an issue where there is room for ANY error.

In the meantime I am deciding whether or not I will be going on the 3 day safari with some of the team this weekend. . . I really want to go, but I need to make sure I can get everything done.

Lastly, I am in contact with a few orphanages where I hope to spend my last couple of days here. I have really loved the children here and want to go out with a boom! I hope I can make all of this happen!

Does anyone have any patience and time they want to lend me?!?!

Outreach workshops, Jungles, and Cannibals

I am back safely in one piece from the Buvuma Island outreach workshops. We took the craziest taxi ride from Lugazi to Jinja. I am pretty sure we almost hit 3 people as our driver sped through the small dirt road going faster than the road runner. I have learned to speak loud here when I am needing to be heard and I am sure the driver loved me screaming over and over: "SLOW DOWN!!!!" I probably shouldn't put this down on paper seeing that my dear mother reads these posts, but they say more people die here from traffic accidents than HIV/AIDS. Don't worry Mom, I just ride with safe people now :) I am being VERY careful, but I thank you all for your prayer because I feel God and his protection over me constantly.

I ran out of the taxi and breathed in the fresh air and mosquito. I waited and waited for the ferry to arrive and soon realized the slabs of wood and metal in from of me were it! We boarded the "ferry", grabbed our life jackets, and continued on our 40 minutes ride to Buvuma. The island it indescribable, really. The whole time I kept thinking that Disneyland had the Indiana Jones ride right. I have never been to Hawaii yet, but all of my team member that had been said that the island looked exactly like Hawaii- minus running water and clear ocean water. The government provided us with a vehicle and a local named Silver, yes Silver, was our host for the week. Richardson-the head of ADUA was also there with me along with 5 other of my teammates. We took the truck through very narrow red dirt roads and climbed up through the most gorgeous jungle ever. Tall trees with vines, monkeys scattering across the road, mango and banana trees galore, and lots and lots of cows.

The government also provided us with housing. I didn't know that drug dealing happened on the island- it really doesn't, but that is how I would describe the house we stayed in. It looked decent from the outside, but it was dark and drab inside with rat poop (nightmare coming true people!) and lizard and spiders sharing our humble abode. I was grateful to have a bed though, and my mosquito net to shield me from the creepy crawlies. Silver's grandma owned the land and his family cooked our meals which usually consisted of moldy bread, rice, beans, the most wonderful freshly squeezed juice (lemon and passion fruit) right from the tree, and chipati (flat bread). Carbs, carbs, and more carbs. The Ugandas sure do love their carbs, but I am seeing that carbs fill you up and seeing that they don't have much, it makes sense. Silver's family was extremely accommodating and gave up so much to make sure we were as comfortable as possible and made sure our bellies were full. Amazing selfless service.

We spent 4 days traveling from one village to the next teaching HIV/AIDS, Milaria prevention, Nutrition, and sanitation. The first village we went to was the most poverty stricken I have ever witnessed. It was a fishing village right off of the shore and they had little resources for food or anything of that matter. The children were without shoes and their clothes were literally hanging from their pot-belly bodies by a string. Despite their lack of basic material necessities they were happier than most children in America to see me and my friends. They ran up and hugged us- Mzungu! Mzungu! They instantly latch onto my hands and follow me throughout the village showing me why we are constantly told to become like little children. Pure love. Unconditional love. Love for life despite circumstances.

We taught the first group in a school and a boy named Colin would not leave my side. He had a horrible cough, and a very quiet manner about him. He was look up at me and give me this shy little smile every couple of minutes. I fell in love. The classes went well. I taught the group about the importance about proper sanitation and shoe-wearing. The group was very attentive and had a lot of questions with our various topics.

We traveled to several villages spread throughout the island, but there was one village in particular that broke my heart. We were teaching about HIV/AIDS and a boy about 12 years old told us that he had HIV and wanted to know what he could do to get better. Of course we come with information about this malicious disease and how to prevent and I was told about 70% of the island already has it, but of course there is no cure. I hated looking at this boy knowing that his option was to live as healthy as possible and that was it. I could tell him to go visit the one doctor on the island that serves 100,00 people which would be a long journey for him, but how much would that help? We tried to drill in the prevention factor as much as possible, distribute condoms, and pray that the people would take precautions.

Overall, I thought that the teaching went really well. A lot of the villagers thought I was a doctor since I work at a hospital. I had several people wanting a diagnosis of their illness. One man was older and expressed how he was forgetting things- early signs of dementia right? That was my guess, but he needed a doctor. Another woman in her 30's ran up to me and told me she has been experiencing awful pain in her abdomen for the past year and had blood in her stool. At that point I wished that I was a doctor and could help her.

One doctor for one island.

ADUA intention is to educate under-served areas, such as Buvuma island, and get these people the attention and aide that they deserve. Because they are off of the main land, they are continually forgotten about. Ugandans are typically scared of water and so it is hard to bring educated people into the island because they don't want to travel on the boat. I think that the education and time given by our group meant a lot to these people. I spoke later with their chairperson and expressed my concerns. I asked him what his plans were for the future of the people of the island. I hope he can provide some more consistent help.

One night Richardson decided to tell us a story about cannibals. He is a very good story teller. It was after dinner so it was dark outside and the jungle animals were loud and made for good scary background noise. Richardson told us that the island had cannibals and went off on their rituals and practices. He told us how they like to go to graveyards when the dead had just been buried. They dig up the fresh body and partake. I kept thinking he was joking, but the man was for real. I knew I had to go to bed pretty soon in my drug house and I started to feel my blood pressure rise. He kept going on about how if someone in their clan passes away they give the body to another group of their kind so as not to eat their own. Then when the other group has a similar situation they trade their own back to the other group. "Don't worry though mzungus, we have not had a case of cannibalism for 3 years now" 3 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ONLY 3 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is not comforting me. I looked up disgusted and asked him about the butterflies on the island. Yes, tell me all about the beautiful, harmless creatures called butterflies.

I didn't go to bed for a long time that night. Deep in the night around 3 a.m. I heard the loudest bangs and booms and the my bed shook back and forth. I felt my heart stop and I thought that the cannibals had surely come for us. All of us were dead silent and then a "what was that?" Mike, a guy in our group said, "Oh it was probably just a branch that fell on the roof". A branch on the roof. Ok, I like that answer. . . but that was a LOUD sound though . . . I know the roof in made of tin, but a branch? Just think it's a branch Andrea. No, it's not crazy village people outside of your door or anything. Just when I thought I had started my heart again and felt the blood circulating, I heard a group of people chanting/singing in the distance. It sounded like a tribe chanting around their drums. At this point I really thought I had gone crazy-maybe the malaria pills were getting to me, but my friend Camille asked if I heard the singing. Oh crap, she hears it too! I wanted to crawl inside the world of Utah quickly, the safety of familiarity . . . I said a million prayer to fall asleep but as I closed me eyes I kept seeing tribal faces. AH! I somehow managed to fall asleep. Silver told us the next morning it was probably a monkey jumping on the roof looking to eat the rats that scurried about the roof.

Tree branch. Monkeys. Cannibals.

Cannibals?

Overall, minus the freakishness of some moments, the island was amazing. I know its hard to believe after that story, but the non-cannibal people were amazing and the view doesn't get any better. A dream and a nightmare all in one. I managed not to see an actual rat, but I would hear them at night jump down from the tops to the floor. No cheerios in sight so that's always good.

Uganda needs a strong government who instills education for its people. The people may suffer from their poor circumstances, but they are a happy god-fearing people. Emmanuel cooked my food most night and we had a long conversation. One thing he said to me will stay with me for the rest of my life. "Africa is good. God has given the African people everything they need. We have fertile soil to plant our crops, moderate weather, and a beautiful land and people that I would never give up. I could never ask for more from God."

And so it is, God provides for his people. We all live through the grace of God. He continually blessed his people with what they need and what we lack he provides through the services of other people. The Ugandan people don't have much, but what they do have is something that I hope to take with me for life- love and gratitude to God simply for life alone.

Buvuma Island

I am finally off! I have had a ton of meetings this week with local non-government agencies to discuss various projects. I mentioned before working with a man named Richardson who is over ADUA and we were finally approved as a group for this project. My group consists of me, Kellie, Camille, Alissa, Mike, and Abby and then we will meet up with the organization ADUA and head to the island!

In order to do country development work you basically have to work with a NGO to see what kind of help they need. It took about a weeks worth of meetings with Richardson to decide we could help him, and also to convince the rest of our group that this would be a sustainable and worthwhile project. I assumed that once I got to Africa I would just been thrown into projects, but its been through a lot of research and time that I am finally able to get to work!

We leave tomorrow and will travel about 2 hours by taxi (SUPER crazy and entertaining) and then we are taking an hour ferry ride to the island. I am really excited to see the island and mostly to build relationships with the people I will be educating. We are doing workshops each day to different villages around the island on HIV, milaria, hand washing, jiggers, and other various health-related topics. I am not quite sure what our living situation will be, but the last group that did something similar lived in grass huts. It all sounds like the African dream until they told me they shared the grass hut with RATS!!!!!!!!!!!!! AH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rats are my absolute nightmare! When someone asks: What are you most scared of? I would reply: Cheerios, and sleeping in a room, being in a room, being in close proximity with RATS. Yep people, I am living with the rats soon. Pray for my poor little body and mind.

One thing that has amazed me is how easily humans adapt. I have seen myself and others adapt quickly to the weather (kind of), the food, the people, the culture. Is adaption also possible with Rats? I'm not worried about it . . .

I have a lot of stories from this last week and not enough time to write them, but here are my highlights:

-Taking a boda boda (motorcycle) to Noah Ark orphanage in Mukono. This little 6 year old, Andrew, stuck to me the whole time and kept running to the kitchen to fetch me water and glucose biscuits.

-Visiting a remote village with a local. We took a hike through the jungle for a couple of hours and saw monkeys. We also saw a lady deep in the jungle making moon shine. HA! I got to take pictures of people and meet everyone in the village. First time eating jack fruit and some others that were named weird cool things.

- Eating two fresh pineapples in one day and dipping the pieces in Nutella. Heaven in africa!

-Making an african mix with a local at a music shop. I had him download all of the Lugandan local hits. TOTALLY hip and TOTALLY legal.

-Surviving in a house with 21 people, no space, one shower, no fridge, and lots o' love.

-I ate fries for dinner last night. Yep, just a plate of fries and rice that the cooks made.

-My neighbor kids and I played hopscotch (sp?) and they always run up to greet me.

-I walk outside my house everyday and greet my neighbors bull who is free roaming. It's all good.

-Lugazi is BEAUTIFUL!!!! It's so green and the weather for the most part is like 80 degrees. The people are so friendly and the kids always sing: Bye mzungu, and run up for bungus. I feel at home.

-Dinner at night usually consists of: potatoes, rice, beef, noodle thingys, sometimes mutoke (cooked banana) and sometimes pineapple. I cooked a vegetable soup from fresh market veggies and it was delicious! It was nice to have some veggies. Our cooks Eve and Rosette spend hours cooking for us and they really crack me up when they make fun of our mzungo ways.

-Going to the market to visit Beatrice who I have picked to buy fruit from. She is a single mom and supports 8 children.

-Going to church with Pastor Francis. I loved everyone singing to the beat of the drum and dancing around. The elderly lady laid down on her belly at one point and was there long enough for me to be concerned that she was possibly not breathing anymore. She was just singing praises to Jesus lying down.

-Visiting a school nearby to teach and having the 4-6 year old sing me songs about Jesus. Uganda has such a god-fearing people and it reminds me to include more in everything I do.

Alright, I better get going. Thanks for all of your support and prayers- I have felt so protected here and I know it is through you guys.

webale! (thank you)

Andrea

Death By Water

White water rafting the Nile- I think I highly recommend it! A couple of the girls from our team are leaving today so we decided to do a team building experience which was rafting the Nile. I thought from my couple of years of going down the Colorado/Green River that I would have ample amount of experience for the rapids we were goint to encounter- I was WRONG! When I go rafting back at home we have river guides that take us down the whole way and we just sit there. Oh no, this time it was one Ugandan river guide and the seven of us Muzungos (white people) with oars . . . not a good idea!

The white water rapids are like any others I have seen. THEY ARE HUGE- jaws of death if you may. I wanted to chicken out, but I figured how bad could they really be if they are letting us paddle. haha . . . The first rapid was a class 5 and the last part of it we dropped of of a waterfall- it was pretty sick. The second one was a class 5 and it looked like huge ocean waves trying to suck us in. I somehow managed to stay in the boat while 3 of my buddies got swept under. I think I was traumatized at this point. In total, we went through 4 class 4 rapids, and 3 class 5 rapids. We flipped our boat once trying to go back and "surf" the class 4 rapid . . . and I am pretty sure I launched out of the boat a few times. . .

At one point we jumped out of the boat and decided to swim the Nile. The water temperature is like swimming pool temperature and the scenery is to die for. I saw a baby monkey, lots of villagers fetching water . . . one naked. . . and just gorgeous folliage. As we were swimming our guide, Nathan, pointed out to us something in the water. We got back into the boat and realized we had been swimming with an alligator. I tried to stay in the boat from then on.

On the way home we road this bus back to Lugazi. The roads started to flood and it got a little hairy. All of the sudden we hit this HUGE bump and since I was sitting in the back I shot up 2 feet, along with the other three girls next to me, and rammed my head into the top of the bus. I honestly thought I had broke my spine or something serious. I couldn't breathe for a bit and I was mainly in shock. I think that I will be ok, but my ribs and the top half of back are pretty banged up. I guess I didn't name the blog Everyday Adventures for nothing!

The work is coming along here. I have been meeting with a man name Richardson who organized ADUA. He served villagers off of Lake Victoria and does a lot of outreach teaching. I am thinking about partnering with him as he goes to these villages. I have one more organization called FREDA, that need to assess as they do about the same thing. I want to compare and contrast their programs and see which one I can be of more help. Both go out to different remote villages and teach people about HIV prevention, hand out condoms, Milaria prevention, pass out mesquito nets, hand sanitization, and so on. Richardson told me that a lot of the villages off of Lake Victoria just have fishing and lumbar as a mean of income. We have discussed putting together a plan for a piggery farm so that they would have one more source of income. It's a really big project and I need some more time to plan and assess.

I have also started working with my friend Kevin, from our team, who is trying to register some local areas for TOMS shoes. We are currently trying to get duty-free status so that when they ship the shoes over we don't have to pay tax. I think today we are going to try and contact the US Consulate to check on our current status. After we that we need to find somewhere local to store 17,000 shoes!!!!!!!!!!!! That's a lot of shoes! Once we get that done we need to go out and gather samples of cases of Jiggers to prove that these poor areas are in need of shoes. And then from there we are supposed to measure 17,000 peoples feet. I think I may just take a sample of like 1700 because its seems insane to measure 17,000 peoples feet. eh?

I have met with a couple other partners regarding projects and there is A LOT more that our team in already in progess of doing. Once I get a more concrete plan on my projects I will let you all know. I hope you are all doing well!

love,

me

I made it!

Hey everyone!

I somehow managed to make it in one peace to Uganda!! It was a really long couple of days flying here as I went through four different countries, but I finally made it! Everything is so incredibly different than what I am used to. The driving is the first thing that really caught me off guard. Everyone drives all over the roads and there is constant honking. I think we almost hit a couple of people on bikes and bodas (motorcycles). Trying to cross the street is a whole other story. It's a lot like Frogger, the game, where you have to go fast and dart between the cars. . . good times!

It's a bit muggy here and I am hoping my body will adjust to the temperature. Our house is very humble. . . I don't know how else to put it. It's a 3 room- total! I would guess it's somewhere around 500 square feet. We have bunk about 9 bunk beds stacked 3 high, in each room. We are literally living on top of each other. There are 21 people in the small, humble abode. We had to move the table out to the courtyard in order to accomodate everyone. We luckily have a bathroom with a shower-it's supposedly warm when the electricity is working. I had cold shower this morning. I think the electricity works every couple of days. It was all pretty overwhelming to step into these circumstances, but I asked for simplicity and that is exactly what I am gettting.

We walked through our village, Lugazi, yesterday just to explore. All of the kids shout out at you "Muzungu!", which means white person I believe. They wave and say "bye" which I was told they think means hello. A bunch of them would run up to me and touch me, a lot wanted to hug me or do "bunga" which is like stones or knuckles. It's my favorite part seeing all of the kids and how big the smiles on their faces are. The people here are already pulling at my heart strings.

We are taking it easy the next day and then tomorrow we have a team meeting to start getting projects going. I will try to keep you all updated on the wild experience I am having here.

much love,

Andrea

7 days!

7 more days until I am on a plane to Uganda! It has been a six month wait and now it is finally time to get this adventure started! I have a long plane ride . . . Salt Lake City to Chicago, Chicago to London, a 10 hour layover in London, London to Kenya, and then finally Kenya to Uganda. Pretty much after 2 days I will arrive at my destination. I am trying to take advantage of warm showers while I can, but I can't wait for what is ahead!