We are mzungu. Welcome to Africa, and an update.

oliotioa. (not correct spelling.) How are you all? Jared and I have safely arrived in Kampala, Uganda after two days of travel. We left Maggie's house at 4am to head to the airport with our personal 2 checked and 2 carryon bags, as well as two large bags full of feminine hygiene kits. We get there and were informed that Jared's itinerary was not matching his passport and that he wasn't on the flight with me or something. The nice man fixed it all and then assigned us seats (we had done this already online, but alas, hadn't worked or something...). We were finally at our gate by 5:30am. We flew to Washington Dullus and got there around 2:30pm. We had a delicious Potbellies dinner and then at 5:30pm we got on our next flight for Brussels. I think we watched movies or something or slept. We arrived in the morning. We had a couple hour layover and then we were off to Africa! We landed in Kigali, Rwanda, but just for a bit, and then headed to Uganda. We arrived at 11pm in Entebbe, Uganda! We got to our apartment compound about 1am. All of our luggage came through! I was informed later that a girl carrying one of the duffels full of kits never got it from the airlines. But all of our luggage came through which made us very happy indeed. Being back in Uganda is AWESOME. Being in the city is a little different for me. I'm not sure I love it as much as Lugazitown. Also, its really frustrating to not know how to speak to the people! This is my first time in a foreign land after the mission and it is driving me nuts that I can't just go talk to all the little kids around us. So I have some phrases I learned on the plane and I need to study those. Living conditions: BYU hooked us up. Jared and I have a big room with a big bed. It's hot, we are getting an electric fan soon. We have WIFI internet. SAWEET. Yesterday Megan (my co-partner on the project) and I had a meeting with the Uganda Days for Girls Team. Uganda Superpower we call them. I have to go now, but will update more later..hopefully with some pics.

CONTINUED: On Wednesday I felt crazy. I was super dizzy and felt like i was on the houseboat/airplane as I walked around here. I was pretty jet-lagged I think. Well, we were picked up by our contact Olivia and headed to meet the rest of the team. SO great. We had a 3 hour meeting with them and figured out a lot of logistics and decided we could go to a school the very next day. WE WERE PUMPED! I felt very productive and happy that things were working out. Megan and I came back and met with our professor and found out our IRB proposal had not been approved and we needed to do some changes and clarify some things. We also knew we wanted to use the tablets for the next day to gather our data from the interviews but the chargers were NO where to be found. We started using phone chargers and none of the tablets worked. NONe. after two hours, we got one to charge a little. We organized and counted the kits which took a long while and then realized the reality of our project the next day. We needed the tablets to work and we needed to change our format to the survey format on the tablets. But, the tablets were not charging. AFter spending a lot of time running around trying to figure things out, our professor Dan told us we couldn't go b/c it just would not work logistically. We were planning on interviewing 230 girls which would take 8 hours with just the two of us and 4 of the Uganda team, but b/c we didn't have the tablets working or the right software on the tablets and we hadn't trained the ugandan team to use them (or us) he told us to hold off until we could get it all right and we could get others to help us. We were sad, but a little relieved too. WE felt bad calling them but it was needed.

Thursday we spent the day working on our IRB and homework. AFter 6 straight hours of working on all that I was tired. And honestly, a little bit unhappy. I ended up falling a sleep for a while and then i was really out of it.

It's an adjustment being in the city and I knew I couldn't sit inside doing paperwork all day or else I will go insane. Lucky for me on Friday we had class, but Megan and I left early to go with the Days for Girls team to a conference out in a more remote area. This made me VERY happy indeed. I felt like this was the Africa I had loved and missed. We traveled for 2.5 hours there on very dusty, bumpy, pot holed filled roads. The ride was just like I had remembered---felt like a roller coaster. Someone stated, "We pay big money to get rides like this in America!" For reals. The red dust was crazy though. We couldn't see the car in front of us! We got there and it was a HUGE conference. There had to be 300-400 kids there with a lot of other important people; chairmans of organizations, youth speakers, and some representatives from parliament. Days for Girls was introduced after a while and our Director spoke for a moment and then Megan and I were introduced and we were asked if we would say something. I spoke first. I basically gave a motivation speech and told my story about my love for Africa and Uganda and my life goals/dreams and how they have come true. It was really fun. I connected Days for Girls a bit and talked about how girls/boys are equal and we need to help one another to be successful and to 'unlock our potential' which was phrase used earlier by the speakers. Megan also gave a great speech. They were a great crowd and really seemed to like us. Honestly, I felt at home. This is my Africa: Being with the youth and sharing my passions and letting them know that I believe in them. It was a lot of fun. We then drove back the 2.5 hours and hit an awesome traffic jam in Kampala. Then , actually a motorist (boda) hit our car. A taxi swerved and hit him which them made him off balance b/c he was carrying a big crate of goods and then he crashed into us. We are okay, no worries. It was just a little startling. Then we met the team at the Mosque in Kampala. I was exhausted. I should have known to bring more water and realized it would be a 7 hour experience. I was pretty dehydrated and tired. The mosque was really cool though. We climbed the tower (REALLLLLLY TALL. A long climb.) and saw the sun set. We then headed to a nice Indian restaurant. There was over 30 of us and it stressed them out a lot. It literally took 2 hours to get our food. Which I feel like is normal in Africa. The food was really good though! I never have liked Indian food before, but it was reallly delicious. And I didn't get sick from it. :) Unfortunately , today I did. We headed out to get my favorite Ugandan food--rolex, which means, rolled eggs. IT is egg and tomato and whatever else they have, lettuce usually, in a flatbread (chipati). They use tons of oil when making it and I think my stomach just cannot handle that anymore. Jared seems to be doing just fine with the food. We are happy and excited for what is a head. Today we are just relaxing. Jared went and helped our professor's son, Rob, with his eagle project. He is fixing a garden for the deaf and the blind school. So Jared worked hard this morning digging holes ,etc ,but I slept in b/c I was beyond exhausted from yesterday. Some of the group went to go to a torture chamber but we weren't feeling it. I think we will go visit my friend Ashley that lives here. SO far, it's pretty great! NExt week we are working on our professors project called the NGO scorecard. NGOs were evaluated for there effectiveness and we are going to go see how they are doing next week. We will also be officially doing our Days for Girls project next Friday. Should be a blast! I love this place! Jared seems to be liking it a lot too. I do not really like the city as much as where I lived before. But, alas, I can stop complaining about that b/c I am in UGANDA! MUCH LOVE, Jared and Tori