Welcome to Uganda!!!

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Everywhere I have gone people here have greeted saying, "Welcome to Uganda!" All the children yell "Mzungu, Mzungu!" (meaning white person) when I walk by and they wave and get so excited when you wave back. Some follow us for a bit and just keep waving until they can't see you anymore. The streets of Uganda are always busy with cars driving by, pi-chi pi-chis (motorcycles) weaving in and out of the cars, and people walking or riding bikes on the side of the street. Thursday after I got into Entebee, I was picked up, along with another volunteer who is staying with the same host family as me, and brought to Iganga where we met out host family. There is our host mom, Heron, and host dad, Idi. They have three kids, Kiza, who is 5, Sophina who is almost 3, and a one month old baby. There are also 2 live in house maids, one of whom has a 6 month old baby. They are all very nice and very interested in our culture. We eat lots of food! There is breakfast, lunch, tea (with a small meal around 6), and dinner (served around 9 or 10) so we definitely do not go hungry! On Friday, Juliet who is associated with ELI, took us around town and helped us get a phone without having to pay the "mzungu prize" and she showed us where the closest place to our home was to buy drinking water.
Adelia, my roommate, and I also met Megan and Anna who are two other interns with Eli living in Iganga. The four of us along with Heather, who is living in Jinja and an intern with ELI, went to Sipi Falls over the weekend. We had to take a bus to Mbale and then pick up a matatu (taxi) to the bottom of the mountain. The matatus are not like American taxis. They are vans and they cram as many people as possible in there. And remember there is no AC here at all! We then switched to the back of a pick up truck where there were about 20-25 people on the back! It was a long ride since the truck could no go fast up the mountain and it kept overheating but the view up was amazing! We stayed at Crow's Nest hotel with the most amazing view. Right outside our room was the valley and across the biggest of the 3 Sipi falls. It was so beautiful there! (Hopefully I will be able to get pics up soon) Hotels here are different though, we had a small cabin with 6 beds (3 bunk beds) for the five of us and we had a light that was turned on at night. However we had a shower there which was so exciting since at home we wash with a bucket and water. We hiked down and across and up to the falls and along the way met some of the people who lived there and joined us on our hike.
Today was my first day of work at the orphanage. I taught some of the younger kids basic english by teaching them the parts of the body. Then I taught a math class (primary 4, which is 11 years to 14 years old). I am already working on the lesson plan for tomorrow's math class. I will also be playing football (soccer) with the boys tomorrow as news spread rather quickly that I used to play. I'm not sure if that is good or not as they are quite good players!!
I should have more regular access to the internet now as the office in the orphanage has internet and they have already told me I can use it whenever. That way the next blog won't be so long. I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you guys!!

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