finally here

so, after almost 3 solid days of traveling, we finally arrived in mbarara (from chattanooga to detroit to ampsterdam to entebbi (spelling?) then drove to kampala and slept then the next day to mbarara). it was a lot. on the plus side, i am a college student and my sleep patterns are already so messed up that i don't think jet lag is affecting me at all. this is a beautiful country. we are here for the end of the rainy season and so it is not that hot yet (which is very good because we have to wear pants all the time). the tropical climate and the abundance of vegetation and birds quite breath taking. this morning, i woke up to a chorus of birds sings and a giant green grass hopper climbing on the outside of my misquito net (speaking of grasshoppers, we ate some fried grasshoppers with dinner last night and they are really good. they have a fishy taste to them and they pull the wings and legs off so it doesn't look too weird). i am going to organize my narrative because there is too much to talk about.

trip was fine. food was actually really good on the plane.i watched more movies in that stupid little TV they put in the backs of the seats than i ever wanted to. i am fine without watching another movie for a month. the only really good one i saw was precious which was incredibly depressing but a really really good movie. we went to Dr k's mansion for the night after we got in (he used to lead covenant trips to uganda but is getting too old and busy to do it anymore). it is really nice house for uganda and has an incredible view of lake victoria. we traveled all the next day to get to mbarara. we road in a microbus (for all the people who went to nicaragua with me). we got a great view of kampala, the capital, as we drove through it. it is a very busy city. i was struck by the economic prosperity there. it was definitely a third world economy but it had a hopeful feel to it. there were all kinds of businesses and shops open and everywhere people were carrying raw material and working. it seemed like a place where i wouldn't be afraid to start a small business. i noticed that there was no infrastructure to control all the raw material and consequently, it was all over the place. at the same time, there were roads being build all the way to mbarara. in the towns it was all dirt roads but then when you got out in the country there was paved roads and working crews making more roads all along the way. uganda seems to be developing rapidly.

we got to where we are staying and it is much nicer than i thought. we are staying in a guest house of hospital and we (the boys) get our own kitchen we can use for to make food. it is awesome. but also a very different way of life. we can't drink any of the water (from the tap) and we have to cover everything because the geckos and bugs will get into it. it is really cool. i have to go now cuz our rides are here but i'll probably be able to blog later. there's lots more to tell.