T.I.A... (This Is Africa!)

Africa! Well everybody we made it! but more importantly my baggade made it! Wed morning we took off to chicago, where we caught a connecting flight to London and spent a full day there. That was an interesting experience :) stories later to come...then took off on a long flight to Kenya where we caught our last short flight over to Uganda where we were picked up by our country directors. Only 23 hours of flying. No big deal. We flew in yesterday early morning and then all 14 of us Mazungas (white people)stuffed ourselfs into a small ancient bus and all our luggage for a 7 hour treck accross the country over every kind of road amaginable. What an experience that was. Uganda is amazing though! We looked outside as we landed and saw the small barefoot children of the village of Entebee playing soccer with a "ball" I have never seen before and I instantly fell in love. Our journey lead us through village after village and we instantly became celebrities. The children laughed and everybody stared and pointed fingers and welcomed us to their village. I am in a complete daze at the beauty of this country but more importantly the kindness of the people. We are having a few problems securing a safe place to call home, and everybody is willing to leave and sleep outside so we can rest our heads. So humble the people are. Mbale itself is wonderful. We spend the day along the dirty roads and riding the Boda Bodas (small motercycles) to get around. It's amazing how anybody survives those things. Mbale is a pretty good size city and people are everywhere. Villages run along side and become very remote. The day we arrived it was nine at night and after 3 days of traveling, jet lagged and starving we found out no have no electricty either. Instantly I will never complaine again! We were all so tired so just through up our nets to go to bed when about 2 hours later we all woke with burning eyes and swollen faces. Aparentlty the nets were a little strong and nobody slept. This morning we woke up, cut up some fruit, and just laughed at everything that has happened and crazyness of this all and keep saying "guys...were in AFRICA!" I seriously feel like I fell in the Alice and Wonderland hole and get up in the morning wondering where I am. Despite it all, I already feel apart of everything and were now begining to work with the Sr. LDS couple here and there sooo excited to have us. I have found myself already fallen in love with this country and Uganda has a funny way of surprising you. Always something crazy.Stepping off the plane the warm humid air was so refreshing and I'm excited to be apart of something with so much potential. Were just trying to nail down a safe place to live, meet with potential partners and get established. There is so much poverty here, and the lifestyle is quite the shock to me, and is taking some getting use to. Sometimes I just melt inside and try really hard to not burst out in tears for so many poeple. At the same time gives me a lot of motivation to live with these people, build with these people, help these people, and help them help themself. I can't wait for the future and im thankful for what it holds for me. Thanks for your support from everybody. I'll post pictures when I can. Sighing off from Mbale Uganda!!