Wednesday, January 14, 2009

planes, rains and automobiles

The KLM airlines is amazing. It was a flurry of sleeping, waking up to be fed scrumptious yummies, sleeping, waking up to watch free movies or tv shows, sleeping, waking up to get apple juice and more yummies, sleeping, waking up to listen to free music...I think I'm in love. Oh, and our stewardess, Irimgard, gave us candy. Just our row. That's right.

This guy on the right is Herbert, my second airport friend. When I got to the DC airport at six in the morning, I was drawing for a couple hours until he came along needing to make a call. We ended up hanging out for the next six hours and he told me some about his life, coming for the second time to the States from Ghana to work and study. He told me also about his country and its capital Accra. My first airport friend was a girl, Priscilla, who like me grew up first in Huntington Beach and then Anaheim! Although eventually I had to sleep it was so nice learning about her work in Brazil helping with a new Poruguese translation of the Bible. Really, airports are amazing!This is the guest room we stayed in the first night. When I first saw the mosquito net, it was tied at the top and I thought it was decoration! I feel like I'm in a princess bed every night. Really, I'm going to miss mosquito nets very much! After about 30 hours of flying, which was so amazing, we had a two-hour bus ride which I spent with my head out the window or busy eating bananas. We arrived at the school maybe 1 am.


This is the beautiful view from our main classroom. For me, all of my scheduled classes are here. I'm taking History of East Africa from 1800s-independence, Politics of EA since independence, Faith and Action, International Missions and Ministry, and Creative Writing. There was a schedule conflict witht the Law and Christian Political Thought, but I will still attend one of the two sessions every week! It's quite an interesting schedule, as I have class at 8:30 every day. Monday and Tuesday my last class ends at 5, and Wednesday by 4, with a 4-hour break! Thursday I have only one class, so I will be done by 9:30, and Friday I will be done by 10:30, thought that day's schedule may change. And everyday of course I am to be home by 7, so I have to leave by 6:30 to make the walk in time. My family now lets us help in bringing out and taking in the dishes, and we prepare our own baths. Friday we will go into Kampala, the capital city, and Saturday my sister will teach us how to get eggs from the chickens and wash our clothes! Here is also a picture of the same classroom and some of us. This was our first morning and we were enjoying a breakfast of bananas and bread and juice. The food is amazing and it really is a shame I haven't take any pictures of it yet. Matoke is this mashed-potatoes like cooked banana, it is really a staple. It's quite bland, but when you pour your meat stew over it as they do it is great. Rice and beans are big here as well. For breakfast usually I just have tea and some bread with butter.This Tuesday we were eating lunch when quite quickly it began first to sprinkle and than to pour. During a brief reprieve we all ran to class together. Not all of the windows lock, and the door does not either, so we were sitting there in a small circle with our missions teacher, Brooke (an alum of the program!) nearly yelling to be heard over the howl of the wind and rain. Qutie a few trees fell down, including this one here, right in the middle of the road. This was when the man who returned Michelle's lost baggage returned us home. The boy has a stick in his hand trying to chop the tree! Eventually, we went off the road and around. It's amazing what people can do with cars here. The roads are similar to where I went off-roading one time, dirt and rocks and pits and bumps.

I will try to take more recent photos and tell you of more recent Ugandan adventures soon. Until then, I hope you have some really cool adventures of your own!

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