Thursday I went to St. Edwards Primary School again to help the teachers make their posters. I know this sounds weird, but drawing and coloring the posters is actually really relaxing and fun for me. Some of the things they had us draw were kind of weird…..and by weird I mean probably unnecessary. I drew a picture of a girl with a sling on, and a boy with a splint on his leg. Yep, it was difficult. When we told them we were leaving they told us we had to wait so that they could make us lunch. Most of the places here do that for you and it is rude if you don’t wait. About an hour later we got our food and it was a huge bowl of my favorite African food-matoke. Oh man, I was struggling to eat it all. Each bite was forced down my throat. I was really happy that I had my crystal light handy though so that I could wash it all down. On the way home I stopped at the internet café and researched goal setting for Trent and Rylee’s projects. Les and I are assigned to teach those for both those groups.

Friday we took a long drive to Iganga to go check out the orphanage there. This was one of the contacts from the HELP group that was here last year. The drive was AMAZING. It was an hour and a half, and although it was very crowded, it was nice to just be able to sit there and relax and listen to my ipod. It was the most “alone” time I’ve had in quite a while. The man sitting next to me was asking me all about my ipod because he had never seen one before. Try explaining one of those to somebody who doesn’t have a clue what it is or what it does- it’s not as easy as you would think. I let him take a headphone and listen for a second. Once we got to the orphanage the children ran out to greet us. They took us on a short tour of the orphanage. This was one of the nicest ones here. It’s weird to call something like that nice because to our standards it would be considered a dump. Anyway, Heidi brought some sour skittles and decided to give them to the kids. They were attacking us! Heidi had to throw the bag at them before they would believe that they were really gone. Then for a few more hours we just sat and played with the kids. Some of the volunteers and kids made the paper bead necklaces, others danced. After this whole thing we all talked about the differences we saw in the kids that lived in the nicer orphanages and had more experiences with white people, and the kids who lived in the not so nice ones. There was actually a big difference. Once we were ready to leave, they told us we had to wait for the lunch that was “on the way”. Two hours later we got a nice meal of rice, cassava and beans. It was such a relief that we got to serve ourselves and that there wasn’t anything too nasty there. When walking back to the road to try and get a taxi back I almost got hit by a car. The people are all crazy drivers and I swear they have no laws for driving whatsoever. Anyway, all the people around us just started laughing. How is getting hit by a car funny? We also found a supermarket that had diet coke. Everyone bought like 20 cans because they don’t have that in Lugazi. The taxi ride home was crazy! Just picture this: a taxi the size of a mini van with 23 people shoved in it, luggage, a turkey, and a kid throwing up right in front of me. Oh Africa. That night Amber and Corbin presented their project proposal to the group. It was supposed to be 15 minutes and then turned into an hour. Right after that we all went to bed.

Saturday was a great day! We woke up to the rain once again. Can I just add real quick that I have never seen rain come down so hard and so much all at once. When they say rainy season, they mean RAINY SEASON. We waited for it to end before we left to go to Mabira forest for our hike. Our group started out hiking together, and accidentally ended up in 3 different groups going 3 completely different ways. We hiked for quite a while before we decided that we had no idea where we were, or if we were even headed the right direction. We ended up on some random road, and that’s where we really became unsure. We tried asking some little girls walking by us but they had no idea what we were talking about. Luckily about ten minutes later the road lead to the sign for Mabira forest. It was a beautiful sight. When my group was finished we waited for Emily and Trent to show up. Then, we had our driver take us to the American restaurant in Jinja. Oh my word that food is amazing. I got the best smoothie I’ve ever had, plus a basil, tomato, cheese and avocado bagel. Some people stayed after to shop in the stores. They all pretty much have the same things in every store, so it’s basically a contest to find out who can get the lowest prices on the things in there. When we got home we found the pleasant surprise of the electricity off. Ashley and Jackie told us it had been off all day and wasn’t supposed to come back on until Monday. We took advantage of the dark by playing murder in the dark. It was really fun. For everyone who wants to know, Corbin is a liar and deceiver.

Sunday we woke up early to drive back to Jinja for church. We left an hour early but had to wait in the taxi yard for a while so that the taxi could get completely filled up. Because we had to wait so long we were late for church. The church here is seriously amazing though. The people are so strong and when I am around them my testimony gets strengthened so much. They invited us to stay after church for two baptisms too. That was a great experience. After church Les, Ry and I went to the American restaurant. I’ll probably be talking about it a lot so from now on it will be referred to by its name, Ginger. Once again it was amazing. This time I got pancakes that tasted like crepes. On them they put this lemon sauce and sprinkled sugar. I have been craving it every day since then. When we were finished we tried to get on the computers. After 15 minutes of nothing showing up on the screen we all sort of gave up. Trying to find a taxi after was a nightmare. Rylee and I found ourselves arguing with the driver over 500 shillings (yeah, like 30 cents). My family will tell you I’ve always been a tightwad, but now I will finally admit to it. Anyway, Leslie proved to be the voice of reason. We gave up the 500 shillings for a ride home.

Monday we all went to the hospitals. We waited for an hour for the lady we had our appointment with, to show up. She never did, but another lady came to give us a tour around the hospital. The whole thing made me really sad. I don’t see how you could leave that hospital without a disease. The children’s ward smelled of the strongest urine smell I’ve ever smelled before. Most of the people were there for malaria or aids. It made me really glad that in America we don’t face those problems like Africa does. The sad thing about it is that most people don’t know how to take care of it or prevent it either. Monday night was an exciting experience. Dan, who is allergic to peanuts, accidentally ate peanuts in a sauce covering his matoke. They rushed him to the Jinja hospital as soon as they could. By the way, Jinja is 45 minutes away. Once again I found something that I take for granted. The hospitals in America are amazing. I never realized how safe they make me feel, and how much I trust them. It’s nice to know that if I go to the hospital it will be clean, and the people will actually know what they are doing.

Before I end this super long blog I want to add a few more things. Our power came back on late Sunday afternoon-just as the water went out. It is back on now though, so I won’t complain.