WAY UPDATE

I want to start by saying that I was so touched by reading the comments that have already been posted! I felt kind of bad that I didn’t blog more so I am going to try to do better. I can type up entries on word and then take my laptop to the internet café and copy and paste them. So I am going to recap the past few days and then have more organized blogs (:

Travel – sat june 2 2007 – mon june 4 2007
I didn’t sleep much last night. My mom came and stayed in my ransacked apartment. I spent my morning getting the mail key and last minute packing. My mom got panera for breakfast and people came over to pray and wish me well. I am soo thankful to everyone who came and prayed and called. It meant so much to me to have people I love show their support and love before I left. Mom and Michelle took me to the airport. My mom handled it well. I called people from the airport. I flew from Charlotte to Atlanta to JFK. From JFK I had to wait for my luggage for an hour then got caught behind some situation at the passport line and had to wait there forever. We decided we needed to go straight from there to security but since we were hungry we would stop quickly but just take it through. I asked the lady if I could take yogurt and she said I could. I was really excited about it and took a few bites before we got to security. Sadly they told me I couldn’t take it and I had no time to eat it so I had to throw it away. Sad. The plane was stikin amazing! They gave you socks, headphones, and all sorts of things. They give kids toys and things. The seats have touch screens in front of them that you can play games on against other passengers and just by yourself, watch movies, listen to the radio, listen to certain music, and watch a camera that is on the front of the plane and underneath the plane. We were all in awe and my team thought my comments were hilarious.
The flight was 13 hours long. They kept feeding us so much. The food was pretty good though so I didn’t mind. It is hard to sleep on a plane, luckily seth and bryan didn’t mind me leaning on them and yoga has made me more flexible (: The plane had tons of rows of 3 then 4 then 3 seats so 10 across. First class is crazy! They sit and lay in pods! They have personal fridges. 2 people Kevin and Emma, who are married, got bumped up to business class which is right under first class and they got champagne and ordered from a menu and everything.
We got to know each other pretty well because we were beside each other for so long. Here is a little brief about each of my teammates:
Amy is our leader. She is a Ph.D. candidate at NYU in Educational Theater. She works for Invisible Children and thought up and organized the teacher exchange. She knows the guys who made the dvd. She has a 5 year old named Hero (:
Kevin and Emma (Ammee) are married. Kevin is a professor at NYU and is over the 3 students from NYU who get credit for this trip. Emma is a midwife and will be working in a different part of the city. They will be staying in a different place too.
Phil is a Professor at Boise State University. He has 3 girls and is great. Super smart and always a step ahead.
Bryan is an english teacher and soccer coach from Mississippi who will be moving to Houston to teach and coach. He is a sweet guy.
Margo is my partner in crime already. We have been doing pretty much everything together and order the same things to eat all the time. She is one of the students from NYU and getting her masters in educational theater. She majored in Spanish and theater and reminds me a lot of Bethy. She has been all over the world.
Seth is also from NYU and in the same program. He is hilarious and it seems if something goes wrong it happens to him or me (:
Catherine is also in the program but she met us in Kampala. She was in Kenya visiting her boyfriend.

We spent sunday night in Dubai. It’s in the United Arab Emmerates. It is a city under construction. Apparently there is a man-made lake and island. We went to this huge mall with a ski slope in it! It was neat to ride around the city a bit and walk around the mall and stretch our legs. Our cab driver was a bit crazy. He was very tired on the way back and was falling asleep at the wheel. He took us the wrong way and then went out the in of the drive. We thought we were going to get in an accident. He got honked at a lot. It was nice to get a hot shower and sleep in a hotel to break up the trip. We wont be doing anything like that on the way back so it will be tough.


The 7 hour flight from dubai was fine. We stopped in Ethiopia but didn’t even deplane. The plane wasn’t as nice but it was still fun. Margo and I just played games and watched parent trap.
Arriving in Entebbe Uganda was really awesome. I kept thinking “o my gosh I am in Africa” I kept saying it too (: We walked off of the plane and through the visa line and waited on our luggage. We got carts and hauled it all to the outside where we found James our special hire who drove us to Kampala to backpackers hostile. I am so glad we got to drive. We saw the countryside and got to just feel the wind in our hair and smile because we were in AFRICA!



About 10 minutes after we arrived we were putting up our stuff and Kevin walks in and says "hey you guys want to see some monkeys?"

We had a short orientation and a traditional Ugandan dinner because Monday nights is Ugandan special night. We had buttermashed mattooke, grilled cassava, and veggies (sautéed veggies in a red sauce and spinach). It was absolutely delicious.
Sleeping under a net was an experience. I didn’t notice the net at night but I didn’t sleep too well because I kept waking up and people kept turning on the lights and such.
I woke up about 5 and saw Bryan getting up, apparently I thought he was Seth and asked accusingly if he was Seth, funny, then got up a few minutes later. I got Bryan’s flashlight from him because I didn’t pack one (bought one today don’t worry) and fished out my shower stuff and went to take a shower. The shower wasn’t hot but it wasn’t cold. We found out that we were just too early to get the hot water because they hadnt started the fire yet.
Margo, Bryan, and I were up early so we sat and read and talked and watched the sunrise! It was something to behold!

Then we went to Garden City in Kampala and got money (1655 shillings per $1). I got juice, flashlight, and garlic pills (sharing with Margo). We also got cell phones. To call me get an international phone card and dial 011 for the international call 256 for the country code and 712094483 for the number. We are 7 hours ahead and I will be able to talk after 5 most days so that’s after 12 east coast time.
Then we went to Pap Café for lunch and headed to Lubiri Secondary School to observe the 3rd best school in the country. It was amazing how little this school had for being the 3rd best. It really puts things into perspective. I was also surprised at how similar these kids were to mine. They were talkative and giggly when the teacher was teaching and seemed to be interested in similar things that my kids are.
Phil, Bryan, and I walked back to backpackers. We all just hung out and chilled for a bit. We had dinner and debriefed about the day and now we are just taking it easy til we go to bed. We are trying to stay up late so we will sleep past 5.
Tomorrow we ride to Gulu. it is going to be a LONG ride so please pray that we can make it and not get sick or have too many troubles. (: