hello...i'm fine!

Life in Mbale is so good. I can't describe how awesome it is to be here. I am loving every minute of it. There are times in my life that it hits me that I am just so happy and couldn't imagine my life any better and today was one of those days. We were riding on the back of a boda on the way to church and I couldn't help but just appreciate how awesome my life really is... I don't want to take that for granted. People are so great here. Obviously everyone is staring at us all of the time- there is no possible way to fit in at all... so I have taken to just saying hi whenever I see anyone at all. I just say hello to everyone on the street- I feel like i'm in China again except this time I am the one that just repeats hello, hello, hello, over and over again. The Ugandans in response to this ALWAYS say "i'm fine" haha it makes no sense at all. I say hello and they say i'm fine -and sometimes branch as far as how are you... but then what do you ask in response? I mean they already told you they were fine! So one day Jan, Jennilyn, and I were walking home and I said hi to this little boy and I swear he said "have fun!" I was so excited by the difference in speech that I pretty much enthusiastically yelled at him "you have fun too!" Meanwhile the other girls bust up laughing because apparently he just used the good ol' i'm fine response....my bad.

 This is the clock tower in  the middle of town. On our first day here we were sent on a scavenger hunt to find out about Mbale. One of the questions was what is little london and where is it. My team was Jan and Jennilyn- before we asked anyone what it was good ol' janny (what I like to call Jan and Jennilyn when I am talking to both of them) guessed that maybe that was little london- referencing big ben maybe... so when we asked someone and they pointed at the tower we assumed we were right... hahah nope. didn't find out until that night at our meeting and I brought it up...embarr..

 Today when we got to church everyone was so friendly and awesome. I look a little crazy in this picture but this is Isaac. He just climbed right over the chairs and sat down right next to me. He is 4 yrs old and my new best friend. He was trying to tickle me, playing with my hair- putting it in my face, his face, and then just straight up pulling on it!, and then he just passed out laying on my lap. It just made me so happy.

Speaking of church all day we are introducing ourselves to people and let me tell you it is kind of hard to understand them when they talk so you kind of feel stupid asking over and over again what? what? but then again none of them could say my name. They kept calling me texas haha. Apparently texas is easier to say and sound exactly the same as Alexis to the Ugandans.... there is a group of 21 yr old boys and they were trying to learn every ones names and kept forgetting mine and then being like oh yeh who is texas? hahaha... nice.

Some boda boda drivers who are real real friendly....

Uganda reminds me of China in a lot of ways- as in there in no personal space bubbles at all. There are no lines. People kind of just push their way to the front and hope for the best. On the other hand where Chinese food was questionable most of the time..I find that I am really enjoying Ugandan food! Everything our cook Sam makes is so good. I had something called a rolex the other day which is chapati (kind of like tortilla bread) with a really good omelette  rolled inside of it. They are super delicious.

Pretty much I can't wait to get started on our projects. We are going to start touring the different types of things we can do this week and I am stoked.