There has been a lot that has happened since I last posted. I don't really ever have access to the internet. We are now in another hotel that is a little nicer than the last. Over the past few days we have continued to go to lectures and learn interesting things about Uganda and how it is trying to achieve sustainability. One of the things I have enjoyed most is the rural visit. It was amazing. It was really nice to get out of the city and see what rural Uganda looks like. It was beautiful, very green and hilly. When we arrived we were swarmed by little kids. Everywhere e go we are called Mzungu, which means "white." Most kids have never seen a white person so they just jump up and down and wave to us as they scream MZUNGU! It's really funny. While we were there we went to a farm and learned about their agriculture which was pretty interesting and quite impressive. The particular farm we went to the man had 10 acres and farmed it all by himself, and he had a very diverse set of crops. We were able to try passion fruit which is now my new favorite :) So good! We also went to a lake, which is one of the deepest in Africa. We went on a boat ride to an island and explored for awhile. Next we stopped at the equator which was neat. Well, Those are really the main things that I have liked in the past few days. We are going on a safari tomorrow which is exciting. I have been making a list of things that are different or are surprising here just from observing while on the bus and being with the Ugandan students. Here are a few on the list:

-bad hygiene (sometimes I need to stick my head out the window to get some fresh air, yes it's that bad)
-very good study habits
-most pretty conservative
-listen to american music and tv
-eat fries, they call them chips, with everything (they fry all of their food)
-throw trash on the ground, it is hard to find a trash can
-women don't play sports, thought it was funny when they found out i played soccer
-they dont have speed bumps, they have "speed hills"
-if it takes an hour to get somewhere, automatically add on 2 and a half hours because the roads are awful and we end up going no faster than 30 miles per hour
-No stop lights and a lot of congestion on the roads, people drive crazy!
-People love Obama

A little brief but there you go! Hope all is well in the States!

These are the only pictures I could get on here... It takes forever! Here is a picture of the bus we ride around on, a picture outside the bus window of a building where people live, a picture of the toilets they have here.. which are just basically holes in the ground, picture of our beds and the mosquito nets in our place, and another outside the window.

Day 2/ Day 3

Hey all. Yesterday we went to the Kasubi tombs. We learned about Ugandas history of kings and saw where they lived and where they were buried. We also went to a place where we learned about the Ugandan martyrs which was really cool. Basically when there was the king ruling there were Christians that came to spread their faith and they were burned by the king because people began to disobey him. It is really famous in Uganda and they said over 1 million people travel there every June 3rd in remembrance of it.
Just talking with the students we learn a lot too. I learned that you can pretty much build a house/shack anywhere you want, there really aren't property rights or anything like that, which I guess explains the randomness of everything. Also we saw an ambulance and a student told me that ambulances don't go to accidents they just take people from hospital to hospital. She said that this happened if the other hospital "made a mistake" which is a little scary. Also there are hospitals and health care for rich and the poor. Poor have free health care but don't get very good service, while the rich pay and get better service. She also told me that people don't have medical insurance cards here, only the richest people have them. We are going to a hospital today so I hope to learn more about the health system (this is what I am doing my paper on).
We also went to a market where most Ugandans in Kampala shop. It was a lot different than I thought. It was just like a huge goodwill basically. They had a lot of hand me down clothing and shoes. They had very little traditional clothing. It is crazy that this is what they sell, as all the stuff is either donated, from a an NGO, or just found in the trash. I saw a lot of people digging through piles of trash. If they were ever to be cut off from these supplies from other countries there would be a lot of people out of jobs. It's just a crazy lifestyle.
There are mostly christian and muslim religions here. People are very conservative. Women don't wear shorts, only pants or long skirts. People don't hold hands, kiss, or anything of that sort in public. If women live with their parents they usually have a curfew, which usually is really early. And I got my hair braided! It took 4 hours but they did a really good job and only was 15 dollars. I guess that's about it. My thoughts are a little scattered so sorry if it is hard to follow.

Made it to Uganda safely! The place rides went really well, they were long but they had really good movies so it wasn't bad at all. The food they gave us was pretty different though and after I tried them all ended up just eating the deserts :) It was dark when we arrived so we couldn't see much. We ride around on a big bus and they are pretty crazy drivers here so it was a little scary.
Today was the first day we were really able to see everything. Today we went on a run in the morning which was nice, then went to breakfast at the University here and met some of the students there that will be hanging out with us. They were really nice and most had 8 or more siblings and lived in villages away from the school. Their school life is very different as well and I realized that we have it pretty easy at Drake. Later we went to a rugby match and it was really intense. The fans were a little crazy.. and drunk. Also there were people walking around selling things (nuts, grasshoppers, bananas). I tried a grasshopper and it wasn't bad :) We went to the bathroom before we left and it was just a hole in the ground, that was a first.
The weather is really nice here and the city is really pretty. It is really green and warm but there is a lot of poverty and there is a lot of trash everywhere. There are a lot of really nice houses and then right next to them or across the street there are little shacks, it just seems really unorganized. It's interesting to look at all the diversity regarding the housing.
We are staying at a place called Red Chilli and they have two rooms, a kitchen, bathroom and shower, and then a main room. Rachel, Shannon and I are staying in one and two other girls (Lauren and Beth) are staying in the other. We can't drink the water so that is kinda a pain, but i'll get used to it. There are monkeys, chickens, a couple dogs, and goats on the property of our place. Also as I am writing there is a gecko on the ceiling above me. Everyone is really nice here, we were wearing name tags this morning and everyone we passed on the road would read our names and say hi, it was pretty funny. Well that's all I can really think of so far. Hope all is well out there! The internet kinda really sucks out here so I'll blog again when I get a chance!

Intro:

Hey guys! Thanks for following my blog! I am going to post whenever I can.. hopefully both pictures that I have taken and thoughts about the trip. Please respond as this is my only form of communication! Thanks:)