first update in uganda

September 10th

Our flight landed in Entebbe at 7:30 this morning. I wish I could've taken a picture of how absolutely gorgeous Africa is when you're landing during sunrise. Bright red dirt against green land, fog covering parts of Uganda, the red roofs of buildings, the trees.. there's no way to adequately describe the beauty of this place. 

Before getting our visas and baggage (everything made it safely to Uganda, praise God!) Sara and I decided to stop in the bathroom, each taking turns waiting in the hallway to watch the bags. I ended up getting myself locked in the bathroom stall for almost 10 minutes. No joke. Apparently there was no handle on the inside of the stall I chose, and once I closed the door, the only way to open it was from the outside. So there I am, locked in this stall. There was a woman in the bathroom with me, and so I started asking her if she'd open the door for me, explaining I was locked inside. Turns out she didn't know English (this story is just getting greater and greater, yeah?) I'm pulling on the top of the door, pulling on the bottom, trying to get the tiny knob where the other side of the handle should be to turn. I considered crawling out from under the stall, but it was too low to the ground and the only thing worse than being stuck inside a bathroom stall, is being stuck under one. After about 10 minutes of this, a nice security lady opened the door for me, shook her head and smiled at me with pathetic eyes, and walk out. Moral of the story.. check to make sure there's handle on the inside of your stall door before you close it. hah!

Our driver was waiting outside of the airport with his Ekisa logo sign, and thus began the 3 hour drive to Jinja. We drove through Kampala (a drive that deserves a whole blogpost in itself). There is no way to adequately describe the chaos in Kampala. Think downtown Chicago traffic multiplied by about 100- both cars and pedestrians. Oh, and the pedestrians don't cross at crosswalks. And there are no lines to show you lanes for the cars. I think I saw about 3 stop lights. And bicyclists and motorcyclists swerve between stopped vehicles. It was a nightmare. If I ever complain about Chicago traffic again, slap me. 

We got to Ekisa during what I'm told is their most chaotic time of the day- school time. Ekisa has a few kids who go to the local school, but the rest they are teaching here at the home. I'm not exactly sure how it works (I'm really not sure how anything works. hah) but the kids seemed to be having a great time working with the staff and volunteers. We walked with two of the volunteers to pick some of the kiddos up from school, and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out and trying to remember names and faces. We helped feed some of the kiddos their dinner, and now they're all in their pajamas getting ready to go to sleep. 

These kids are absolutely precious. I was given tons of hugs all throughout the day; they most definitely love to snuggle! I'm not sure how everything works here, but the volunteer who has only been here 2 weeks already seems to have things kinda down, so I'm hoping it won't take long to adjust. But as of right now, I'm feeling a bit confused and overwhelmed. 

There's so much more I could write and tell you about, but I don't know how much/what exactly Ekisa allows their volunteers to put on the internet.. so I've got to ask about that first. And I'm also dead-tired from 30+ hours of traveling, so yeah. Just know that Ekisa is completely awesome and I'll work on more updates (and pictures) when I can!

September 11th (at 1:00 in the afternoon)

I've officially been at Ekisa for 24 hours now. There's a lot to get used to, but this place is so great. My day started (after I woke up and washed my face and got dressed) with about 5 hugs from the kids, the second I walked out of the door. We ate breakfast, and then the kids started school. We went from station to station, doing things like building with blocks, working on colors, Emily has the kids learning their letters (right now, they are on the letter "m") and doing things like that. We spent snack time outside, helping feed some of the kids and talking with the mamas. The staff mamas here really love these kiddos, you can so see it. 

The other volunteers are going to take Sara and I to town within the next day or so, to get set up with internet and money and a phone (whenever we need a ride, we have to call William, the boda driver). It will be nice to have internet in the afternoon/evenings so I can actually post these updates as I type them, instead of saving them to my computer. 

Ekisa has so many kids here- I think there's 20-some. It's going to take me a while to know names and faces and personalities, but I figure I have 6 months, that should be enough time to get it all straight :) We spend mornings with the kids (from 8-noon) and then while the kids have nap time in the afternoon, we have some free time (to go to town, or sleep, or get on the computer). And from 3-7, we do activities with the kids (playing with them, or going on walks, or going to town, or just spending some one-on-one time snuggling them). Being that I don't have a watch, it's been a bit difficult to know what time it is and keep a schedule (I woke up and almost started getting ready for the day because I thought it was 5 a.m. Really though, it was midnight. haha. Needless to say, I went back to bed until the sounds of kids came in through the window in our room).

I'm learning, and adjusting to life here in Uganda. I want to feel settled, and get into a routine, and know how things work (like everything from what's expected of me to do to how to buy things in the market). But I know these things take time.. so I'm trying to be patient :) But it feels like it's been forever since I left Chicago (I guess traveling across the ocean will do that to you), it's hard to believe that less than a week ago, I was in Chicago with you all! 

*later*

Jessica -one of Ekisa's volunteers- brought us into town about an hour or two ago and got us set up with internet sticks and showed us around a bit. The town is about a 10 minute drive away from Ekisa. Usually we will get there by boda (motorcycle), but Jessica can driver Ekisa's car, and since she was going into town anyway, she brought us with. 

Now that I have internet, you will probably be hearing from me a little more regularly. It's loaded monthly, so my updates might not be that often.. since I'm afraid of using it all really fast and having none for the rest of the month! But another volunteer goes into town on Tuesdays and gets coffee and wifi at a restaurant there, so I may end up doing that occasionally if I'm running low on bytes.

This place really is super-awesome. Like, I can't explain it. There are ants on the walls and the shower handle supposedly shocks you unless you hold a towel in your hand while turning it on (I've yet to try this, being that I haven't showered yet. I'll know in about an hour how it goes) and my bed is 2 inches too short for me to sit straight up in (I'm on the bottom of the bunkbed) but none of that really matters, because Uganda is a wonderful place and Ekisa is just so amazing.

And thanks for the blog comments. I may not respond on the blog (or in email all the time) but I will read them all, always, and it's so nice to hear from people back home, especially while I'm adjusting to being here.

I hope you all are doing well. I'll write you another update in a few days, and maybe have some pictures to share with you :)