Thursday, June 7, 2012

Uganda Livin'....

Here we are. 20 hours across the world. Kampala, Uganda.

The girls did great on the plane ride. Seriously. Boog & I just kept on looking at them in awe.


As soon as we stepped foot in the Entebbe airport, the familiar smells and navigating our way through the confusion came back to me quickly. It almost (almost) felt like home away from home.  We drove through the red dirt streets, saw camels on the side of the road, and my thoughts then turned to "What in the world are we doing here??"   The hard livin' came back to me just as quick.

It took us a while to settle in. Not the girls, of course (noticing a theme?). They took to our housemates' kids like they were long lost buddies.  Here they are eating popcorn together.
 The house we are living in is pretty amazing. The perfect size for two families. Lots of play room and a great, awesome, amazing African backyard. Boog has no problem with that!
 Explorin' in the backyard.
 There's always a beautiful sense of community in Africa. Our house keeper's daughter always pops her head in for a visit. Sharon is quiet, shy, and we have no problem introducing her to our new foods. For instance, I gave her a straight-from-the-oven oatmeal cookie and she rolled in into a ball and started licking it. Sweet Sharon. 
 Sharon & my girls.
 The view from the backyard. That's Kampala through the trees.
 Of course, we give the girls the occassional memory of home. A movie via laptop.
 Sleeping underneath a mosquito net has been no problem.

Not that everything is hunky dory here at all. It's taken all of us 3 days to finally get adjusted to the new time zone.  We've spent most of the three days learning how to live here - buying food from the street market, learning how to do simple things like turn on the oven, getting used to our electricity going out 3 times a day at least, having to iron ALL our clothes that dried on the line (the heat from the iron make sure the bugs and their eggs don't hatch IN your clothes....yeah...even ironing panties), and yes, Grace has even gotten the "Africa's" and thrown up once...although I firmly believe it was really carsickness.

Tomorrow starts our first real day of work. We'll be traveling to Mama Catherine's school and teaching a lesson in the morning....the boys will be painting part of a building....and the kids? Well, they'll be doing what they have been doing since day 1 - playing like there's no tomorrow.

Like I said, THEY'VE adjusted quite nicely.
Stay tuned for more.

 
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