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Keep Noelle in Africa!

Friday, March 15, 2013

And in case you don't see me...

Good afternoon. good evening and good night!

The next 4 weeks of my life... map style...


Yup.  That's a ridiculous amount of traveling.  Let's hope it goes well!! 

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Floods, Fires, and Fun

I went away last weekend, finally allowing myself a short break.  It worked out well, some of the crew went down on Friday afternoon because it was a public holiday.  And the rest of us piled into a car and left on Saturday morning.

It's a fun crew of people. I've casually known most of them for a while. 

We went to The Haven in Jinja, just over looking the Nile.  It had a pool, decently good food, and camping sites.

On the way, John told us of a place in Jinja town called "The Keep" and how he had heard that the milkshakes were Legend (wait for it) dary... or dairy.  ;)

Finding things which are a) delicious and b) high quality in Uganda is not an easy thing, so the sound of "The World's Best Milkshake" sounded great.  We made the trip into Jinja town and were not dissapointed!  These milkshakes were... unspeakably awesome.  I had peanut butter chocolate, and it was life changing.  The best way to start a weekend away, ever.


The weekend was some what uneventful.  Ok, that's a lie.  The days weren't eventful... they were full of hanging in hammocks, talking with friends, shade bathing, swimming, and a few other various activities.

The highlights all come from Saturday night... a decent bottle of wine and good conversation,  a time of singing around the camp fire (and late some hilarious dance music singing).... and then...

The Saturday night excitement...

5 of us women had opted to bring our own tent as a money saving measure.  I told the group that Cornerstone has tents, and that we could probably borrow them.  So we did.  When I got to the camp site, I noticed that the tent wasn't want I had expected.  But it was up, and they had slept well in it the night before.  It was a little too cozy for 5 people, so at one point Nick and I tried to put together one of the other tents in the bag.  We failed.  All of the polls were crazy long!  So we agreed we'd all squeeze in the tent.

Just before bed, Yen decided to sleep between the mattresses in the other tent, so we'd have more space.  By around 12:30 all of us were cozily tucked in and drifting off to sleep.

2:00 AM... it starts to lightly rain. And it keeps raining, and raining... I was on a camping pad in the middle of the tent, but at one moment both of the girls on the edge sit up, they were getting pretty soaked, as was the entry and the back of the ten.

Thus the flood saga ensued.  We were all super tired, I was hoping it would just stop and I could go back to sleep... no such luck.  After walking up (most) of the boys, there were various efforts made to figure out what to do.  Our belongings were transferred to one of the boys tent's and car keys were acquired, after a while. 

By about 3:30, 3 of us were in Tred's car... trying to figure out how to sleep.  Brenda had squeezed into the other girl's tent.  In the, I ended up in the middle seat, curled up and got a few hours of interupted sleep.

The rain didn't stop until 6 AM!  Our tent was incredibly wet in the morning.  Glad we didn't stay there. 


Sunday was a nice and relaxed day, we got on the road back to Kampala about 5:30 pm.  I was tired, but overall it was a nice weekend away.   

Pictures coming soon!

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Do it for the kids...

While I was in the states, a little girl named Dorothy, whom I have known since she was a about 1 year old, entrusted me with something called "Flat Stanley".  This little man is part of a school project, where each of the students in the class send their Stanley to different parts of the world.  The goal is to reach all 7 continents, and I think they may have succeeded.

So, I am representing Africa.. here are some of his adventures so far!   This past week he traveled with me to visit the NET Team in Masaka.

On the Equator!  That's right, the equator is not very far from Kamapala, and we passed over it this week

Banana trees

Fresh Avocado, ready to eat!

On the bus

Beans!


Dishes with Frank (I love Frank's face!)

Cooking on charcoal

New friends:  Rina and Gloryia

Playing Guitar with Gerald

The view from home


Enjoying the view

Climbing a mango tree

The view from home is great, we can see Lake Victoria!