the after effect....

I have been back for a week now and it has been a crazy adjustment from cold showers, mosquito nets, mud huts, and chapati to big beds, swimming pools, and watching tv. It is weird to remember I can shower everyday, I can use my cell phone and talk to people, and that I don't have to let the yellow mellow! I miss the people, the chaos, the kids, inside jokes, and having something to do everyday. It was the best most frustrating time of my life. Everything is in extremes in Uganda. I had some of the best and then some of the worst days in my life. For example let me back up and tell about my last days in Uganda....

who doesn't love a good awkward pencil picture with the elders?

Tennis lessons with Ayub- the best. Lots and lots of "watch the ball"  " come on!" "focus" followed by motioning the racket in the way I was apparently supposed to swing and failed him once again... I am the WORST tennis player and he plays in the uganda open... you can see how he might get frustrated but he is the nicest and just laughs at me haha.

concentration face...

I love this kid so much! The 3 of us are going to be the best roommates ever!

Going to the village and saying bye- the worst. Simon was so upset when I told him I was going back to the states. I didn't know how to say goodbye to him. Mix that emotion with the fact that we were doing dental camp and some of my favorite kids are getting their teeth ripped out.. was a traumatic experience for everyone!

saying bye to all the school kids!

simon!

we have matching bracelets to remember each other

Saying bye to the beading women- the worst.

Staying the night in the zoo - THE BEST! Kara's flight out was on the 10th and mine was on the 12th so we decided to stay in Entebbe and hang out before I left. All I wanted to do was go to the zoo and see a zebra in africa! There were so many ups and downs of the weekend- to a ridiculous extent. It started with us trying to get dinner at the abandoned zoo restaurant (all lights off) and the staff trying to convince us they were open- so much so that they opened the garage door pull down thing so we would get light from the kitchen... no lights in the dining area... they were shocked when we wanted to leave for some reason..The next day was fun but it didn't really get good until we met Robert. Mallory had the idea to flirt with the man in the turtle enclosure and see if he would let us feed the monkeys.. those keens got her all sorts of places and they didn't fail us in Entebbe!

Robert the zookeeper!

He told us we couldn't feed the monkeys because the 2nd person into the enclosure was always thought of as an enemy and the monkeys would attack. As exciting as that sounded... we decided to avoid that. He let us feed the giraffes though and it was amazing! He also called the rhinos over for us and we were pretty much in zoo heaven. What topped off the day making it the best though is when we convinced Rob to take us to see the secret baby elephant! They let him out of his pen and he ran around and played with us.. it wasn't until AFTER we touched him that they told us Charles was still in quarantine... haha great. In the middle of the ebola outbreak and here we are touching the bush animals.. feeding wild monkeys gnuts, holding hands with chimps, and playing with a quarantined elephant... but worth it!

Mal and I trying to be zookeepers.. we wish we were black...

good ol albert brenneman 

albert

the cresssted crane! (you can't say that with out a cool accent)

if i could be at the zoo with any 4 people...

don't touch the bush animals!

baby chuck!

ebola

finally saw that zebra!

jennifer before she got sick...

That night we went to dinner at a chinese restaurant and the owner is from the same small town that I lived in when I was in china! How random is that?! In all of China from the same place and in all the world we happened to be in the same town in Uganda? super random. After dinner we decided to walk to get cake.. bad idea. We were walking and Cami noticed a guy walking behind us.. she started walking closer to us and we were all joking about him and if he was going to kidnap us - stuff like that- we even looked back and made eye contact with him joking... apparently 5 girls and eye contact are not something to deter him though. Rebecca was wearing a double strap anti left bag and had it under her arm, between the two of us. All the sudden I thought she was tripping (we were on the side of the road and it was pretty narrow and went down into a ditch) I was about to laugh at her and looked over and realized it was the man pulling her down- my really good reflexes allowed for me to yell "NO" and that's about it. Sam started screaming and Cami lunged toward them. Rebecca didn't really do anything because she thought it was one of us tugging on her bag as a joke since we had just been talking about it. He ripped the bag right off of her and then disappeared on the other side. We all just kind of stood around in shock, he had taken her nice DSLR camera, her iphone, some of our 1000 Shillings products, her wallet (we had just gone to the atm), and her uganda phone, and no less important my cake and gnuts haha. As we were walking back we were all a little bit freaked (understandably I think) and holding onto each other. At one point a man came running towards us and as Rebecca pointed it out we all just stood there waiting for whatever would happen. Then a different man jumped out at us and everyone freaked.. it took a minute until I recognized him as Robert the zookeeper that had just made the best day of our lives happen... we told him what happened and he was real nice and helped us get back to the zoo.  When we got back Rebecca realized that all she had left was 1000 Shillings- we took that as symbolism all we had left was 1000 Shillings!

literal 1000 shillings.

The flight home was looooong- so loooong. but now i'm home and trying to decide what I should do next in my life... always the question. Where to live, what to do, how to do it...