First day in Africa!

So.. Uganda is amazing! Where to begin? It is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS here! And they have the most amazing trees I have ever seen. I'll try and add pictures later.

So we arrived in Entebbe at 8:45 this morning.. and stepped off the plane into a very new kind of air. (i've never had this much humidity...(which is actually not very much compared to what Phil & Amanda described in Ghana!) but I am still getting used to it.(it feels like I am perpetually stuck in the aquatic center locker room, minus the chlorine smell!) After standing in a line to get our visas (3 months for now) we got our bags (the shoulder strap on my big green one broke and narrowly (like 1/4 of an inch narrow!) missed hitting me in the eye! Thank you Jesus for Your protection!

Then we (Meg & I) were picked up by the two Emmas (both on staff, both men, one of whom is our school leader) and Charles and had a three hour car ride back to the base. Ugandans are crazy drivers! (The guys from the couches would love to come and drive here I am sure!) They drive on the other side of the road.. and constantly pass one another. Pretty much, it looked like there are almost no actual traffic laws... and there is definitely no right of way. But, it kind of makes sense.. that way you are not waiting in traffic so much. But cars drive within inches of each other, and people just run across the road. Then there are the Boda Bodas (motorcycles for hire) who just weave through traffic constantly. It was quite the experience, but interesting and just makes me glad that I don't have to drive here (I would never get anywhere!!) I have to say that Charles is a great driver... and actually I came to notice that people aren't exactly as reckless as they seem, they all pass with care! Also in the city no one uses turn signals.. they just stick their arm out the window when they want to pass you. But when you are going around an extended curve in the road (like the Pole rd s-curves or even longer) you put your blinker on! Random. But kind of cool I guess!

We drove first through Entebbe, then through Kampala and then some other smaller towns before we got to Jinja. We haven't actually even seen Jinja proper yet, because the base is off in another direction. The cities are interesting. there are people everywhere. And always along side the road. They wear all sorts of clothing... some very modest and some not as modest. Mostly though there is a common thread.. skirt or pants. But pretty much everything you could imagine they wear. The buildings are really interesting. It's pretty much always that you see a nice building (what I would consider a nice building for being in Africa) next to a shack. They also paint advertisements for things on the tops of buildings, where we would usually put the name of the store, though they do that too. Because Uganda is a "christian" nation there are stores like : Jesus is Lord -dairy or the like. There are cell phone ads everywhere!

The base itself is up this hugely long dirt road (approx 3 times the length of Zander dr. all the way to the Roosendaal's house) and is huge and beautiful! I am staying in a dorm, with 7 sets of bunk beds, plus one more (which makes for 15 beds) and they will all probably be full. Meg and I were the first to get here.. so we got first pick ( my bed is a bottom bunk between two windows, and it's high off the ground (room for all my stuff!!) and has an outlet, so that Mac can power up whenever he needs to. Two more girls, Catherine & Kendra will be arriving tonight, hopefully in about 20 minutes. Then we headed for lunch (baked beans, spaghetti noodles with some kind of sauce, and some funky like riced potatoes that were a couple of days old.(gross.. everything else was good though!) I ate as much as I could... but then I wasn't so hungry. So after I set up all my stuff, and figured out how to hang my mosquito net (it came with loopholes but no string! . So I made string out of duct tape!) I took a long nap and missed dinner (oops!) and then went for "Fellowship" which is kind of like a small group.. but with sporadic attendance. I have also already braved and rather quickly adjusted to ( to my surprise) the squatty potties. They really aren't that bad! We also can't drink our tap water... so tomorrow they will give us a tour and show us where to get water from.

The people here are amazing. So friendly and hospitable, and just welcoming. Everyone seems delighted we are here and excited for us to go through the school! Speaking of which, there are way more people on the base than I had previously thought. Our DTS may end up being about 30 people!! Crazy! And Emma said a rough estimate of the number of people on base could be 150! So crazy!!

I am getting used to all the accents too. There are a lot of british people here on base. Tonight I spent time with Alex and Rachel, two amazing girls who are on staff here, and I almost had the urge to pick up their accent!

Something else, that's interesting is that sunrise us not until around 7 am... and sunset is exactly at 7pm. weird! I know you all want to see pictures, I took one of my first African sunrise (from the plane, and from the ground) but uploading pictures pretty much eats the entire internet access for everyone else.. So as soon as i find a time when I can take over.. I'll add pictures!

Ok, Prayer requests:
*no more Jet lag... 11 hours is a big time difference to maintain!
*get used to the humidity
* adjustment easily to so many new things and new people
*unity and bonding of our DTS class
*bonding with other people on base (it will take me a few days before I can really start to adjust and make new friends)
* safe travels for all of the other arriving students

love you, miss you. blessings!

(PS. sorry that these are all in past tense postedness.. but that's the way it may be.. i'll try and post in present tense soon. FYI is 9am here on Thursday! So I'm guessing that makes it 8pm on Wednesday in Whatcom County? let me know if that's wrong! )