6.30.2013

Mutatus and pick-up lines.

It has only been one week.  One week.  Like you said last night, it seems as if I have been here for months.  It's not that a lot has happened, but I think it is more because of the process of adjusting, meeting new people, getting to know a new place, etc.  And I know from experience that before I know it I will be back home, wondering how everything happened in a blink . . . but right now it feels like I will be here forever.  One of these days I'll do a study on the perception of time and understand why this happens. 

So, let me give you a synopsis of this first week.  The majority of my time is spent doing a few choice activities: reading/working on research, exercising, eating fruit on the balcony, talking, sweating, walking around to run errands, swallowing pills, and sleeping.  Very little time is spent on food or getting ready--it's actually really nice.  I never get really hungry, so I will eat toast (or a digestive cracker) and fruit throughout the day, and then have a little bit of dinner with everyone at night.  That's just been this first week though.  The next three weeks will be very different because I will be in rural areas/traveling, so we'll see what that brings.




Besides this fluid state of daily tasks, we had a few eventful things this weekend.  We rode in a mutatu (a bus/van that is super crammed and sweaty) to the mosque (where my scarf kept falling of my head and I got in trouble for it) and then went to a fancy open-air Indian restaurant for dinner.



Saturday afternoon we went to the palace and torture chambers (so, so sad) and then spent the evening just talking outside.  








And today, I was not feeling too well so after church (Baz came!  And it was the primary program, sot hat was wonderful.) I came back and slept, and now I've just been writing e-mails and resting so that I will be okay to go to Gulu tomorrow.

A few fun facts:
  • Remember that disgusting medicine when I had my hematoma that smelled like paint?  Well, there's a fruit here called jack fruit that smells just like it....and it's in our fridge....so that's a benefit to leaving for Gulu tomorrow.
  • They have a really interesting concept of pick-up lines here, including, but not excluded to: "Hello nice eyes", "I love you.  I love you so much.", and "HELLOIAMSINGLE!"
  • One of the girls here is really good friends with Laura Bennion.  And turns out she's taking a class with Bethany and me in the fall, so we're really excited about that.
  • Driving here is absolutely crazy.  There are no lanes, no rules, and the one key to surviving is to be aggressive.  Mom, I don't know if you would be able to handle it.
  • The children love getting their picture taken.  Pull out a camera and they will come running . . . 




And it's seeing those sweet, bright, wonderful smiles that make me feel all sorts of cliché, cheesy things.  So I will just stop myself there and say goodnight.  Love you.  Hope everything with Miguel's talk/party went well.  Wish I could have been there.


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