How many people can fit into a taxi?

HA HA, okay so we just got back from church in Macono and we ate at the presidents home, which was so nice and it had a flush toilet and good food and best of all, Chocolette cake!! But on our way home we had to find a taxi to go back to Lugazie. We have 20 of us so we all climb into this taxi. So there was 20 Mzugues and 2 Africans all in this taxi for about a 30 min drive. It was funny.
Anyways, this weekends has been an interesting one. I have been sick almost all week. I was in bed throwing up for monday and tuesday and then slowely walked around for the rest of the week. It was weird because it hit about 8 or so people and more people got sick throughout the week. But we are all better now.
Yesterday was the funnest day for me so far. On Friday night, about 10 of us went to Jinja and stayed the night at the lodge by the nile for free. It was amazing because they had toilets and showers!! I haven't taken a real shower sense I have been here because our water still doesn't work and all we have is a well, so we ware our bathing suits and shower together!! Anyways, So I stayed the night there when we woke up, we had some breakfast and then, that is when the fun stuff started happening. I went Bunji Jumping into the NILE RIVER and the after, Rafting in it. I was kind of scared to bunji jump. But I went up there with some people and then I went first. The people tied my feet together and pointed to a building where people were filming me and said to act like I was going to dive for them. So that is what I did. I got my count down and then leaped and the next thing I know, I was hanging above the water and I that is when I got scared. I was shaking. But it was so much fun. Just that feeling of free falling. :) WOW thats all I can say to discribe it!! Then, I went River Rafting on the nile. Now that was crazy. I got so burnt and had so much fun. Our instructor or guid was so funny. My raft only tipped over 1 time and it was on a grade 3 rapid. But I think that our guid made us tip. I swear that I was under the water for at least 30 seconds but really, it was probably only 10 seconds at the most. We went on about 3 or 4 grade 5 rapids and then the rest were only about 2 and 3. But they had some good food. They gave us a sandwitch and they had CHEESE. I haven't seen cheese for the longest time, well it seams that way at least.
But that was my weekend. It was full of adventure and memories. I miss American food so much. All we eat here is MAtoque and chapotte and potatoes, rice, beans, and other starches. No meat or suger. When we go to Jinja, it is a little more developed and we found a place there called Flavours and they serve Hambergers and stuff so we go there whenever we can. But as far as the projects that we are doing here, they are slowely getting started.We are still meeting with people and geting some things planned. I am hoping that this next week will pick up a little more so I can feel like I am making a little more of a difference and Helping people more. I feel like Help International is a really good organization and that we have a lot of things that we can offer to the people of Lugazie. All the people here are so excited and grateful for our help and we haven't even really started to many projects yet. The Adobe Stoves and going great though. We have built so many already and the people are so grateful. I have only helped with one of those so far though. Well, I know there are so many more exciting things that I have not said but there will still be so much more and I can't wait to share them!! Welaba (BYE)

I'm a Mazungu!!

So, I'm in Uganda!! Today is my one week mark. It has been so eye opening and amazing so far. I am enjoying every second of it though. From the second we walk out of our doors at our house, all we here is "Mazungu, Mazungu" and then "how are you?" The kids love us here. They run from all over to see us. One of our first days here, we decided to go and play with the kids who live outside our house and it took a while for them to warm up to us. First we played ring around the rosies with just us muzungus and then slowly the kids started to join in and before we new it, out of no where, there was at least 30 kids surrounding us wanting to play with us. The kids love to touch our skin. They also love my moles and hair on my arms, they will just play with it!! It is so funny. The other day, I was walking down the street to look at some adobe stoves and kids were running up to us and holding our hand but one lady came up with her two kids and set one little baby who probably just started to walk in front of me and another one about 3 yrs old and walked off. The little one was naked and he looked at me and started to cry and run away. It was so sad but funny at the same time. All the parents want them to touch our skin and stuff. It is really interesting. The really young kids are scared of us but the older ones like us!!
The first three days I was here my group went to an Orphanage called Faith orphanage. The first day was crazy because we had to stay in one room because it was raining. We brought jump ropes and bubbles and soccer balls and they had drums there. We were in this room that was pretty small about the size of a living room or a little bigger. It was so crazy we had half the room playing soccer a courter of the room playing the drums and dancing and the other part with jump ropes and then other people playing clapping games. It was fun though. It was really interesting to just sit there and talk to some of the older kids. I met this girl named Roda. She was so fun to talk to because she told me about her family and then wanted to know all about the USA and my home. She found my camera and started to look through all of my family pictures and was so interested to see my roommates and my family and especially my home.
Oh ya, They LOVE Obama. I never new that I would be singing and dancing and cheering for Obama the way that I do here. We will walk down the street and they will Yell OBAMA and so we will yell it back and then they will repeat it and start to laugh. Oh and they have a song here that says "OBAMA is the real African hero" and stuff like that. I will have to get it and show it to everyone. It is so weird and funny at the same time. I've also had some interesting talks about why they like him so much. It is really interesting.
The last thing I'm going to talk about is how we went to the NILE and Lake Victoria. We took a little boat that felt like it was going to sink with all of us in there, all 23. We stopped at the beginning of the Nile and got off on this little island thing and went on this big rock that was covered in aunts and we took some pictures . It was hard because the aunts kept climbing on us and it was gross but we got all the pictures in and that is all that matters!! Okay well I will write more latter.