We all have the same moon....

Again.... it's not really good-bye as we will all see each other again.

But in the meantime, we can just remember that we all have the same moon and the same sun, even if it doesn't always look the same.

Hours at the airport

When you have to travel a lot of hours just to get to the airport, you want to be sure to leave plenty early enough, just in case..... Particularly with roads/construction/traffic like Uganda.

We left with the idea of it taking about 10 hours to get to our destination.... Maybe the traffic wasn't as bad, or our driver was just AWESOME, because we made it to the airport in PLENTY of time.

So much in plenty of time that we couldn't check in for another hour. Oh well, the weather was nice so we just hung outside. Then checking in.... security.... etc. We won't get into all the details, but things were nicely decorated for Christmas. Gulu didn't have much for decorations, but they would occasionally have Christmas music playing as we walked around town. However, the airport had multiple trees. Thanks, Uganda airport.

Now we get to head toward the cold weather and American Christmas chaos!



Our last favorite beverages...for now.

Stretching out before the 1st of two LONG flights.

Traveling home for Christmas.... or were we already home??

We were constantly asked what we were doing for Christmas. Everyone wanted us to say. We had to keep explaining that the only way our families would let us come on this trip is if we were home in America for Christmas.

 

Some people were right in responding, "But you are already home!"

 

Oh, Gulu..... How much you feel like home. And how wonderful it is to be living there.

Now if only we could finish school, figure out a way to do our master's degree there, and then we can all be forever happy!!

 

 

Saying 'see ya later' to our balcony with a great view.

Anna, Esther, Anna-Claire, and Margaret

Anna-Claire and Jolly - hugs and loves!!!

On the road to Entebbe - it's not just the flight that's long.....

BABOONS!!

Nile River -- white water rafting anyone??

Another cute roadside monkey....

A little snooze in the van.

Lake Victoria is so pretty

Thanks for riding down with us, Pope!

Only 2 girls, how much luggage do we need??

Again - thanks, Pope!!!

Collections of Moments

Wonderful quotes from people we knew personally or just ones we saw:

"I go to school with older people, like late-20's."  Gee thanks, Pope, for making me feel even older.

"You first be quiet!" Or in American terms, "Shut Up!"  Oh Robert, how much nicer you made it sound.

And a quote that I heard/saw that was so true because we are all the same:

"Beneath every white tooth, there is red blood."

"Hello, my two Acholi women!" Peter, we will never be truly Acholi women. But thanks for making us smile!

We had some different discussions with all the guys we were working with. One was discussing heights. Some were the tallest in their family. I explained that I wasn't tall for a woman, but I was definitely not short either. Then Robert, dear Robert says to me, "I want to be fat like you."  Oh - I know he didn't mean it to be rude. But it still kind of made me cringe. Silly boy.

"MMmmm.... Girl!! I'm hungry now!!" (Mild translation of what the guards said as I walked by in shorts with my very pale legs. Apparently that stirred up their sexual appetite.)

It was always funny seeing the kids running around in their Adam suit. You know, instead of birthday suit... haha... get it!???!

'By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a child who thinks he is wrong.'

It's YOUR muzungus

Sometimes you meet people and you just click. Sometimes you get along better with one person more than with other people. And it’s nothing against those other people;  some personalities click better than others. That doesn’t stop us from being friends or being nice; just not as good of friends.

Oh, how sad it is that some people get so jealous about situations that they make it terrible for everyone.

Our friend, Jolly, is a great woman. She is a social worker. A mom. A friendly woman and a fabulous friend. We tried to do wonderful things for her, help with her family, and share whatever we could with her. It turns out that the situation made things bad for her. Her neighbors and co-workers started to get jealous and say unkind things. They started to say, “Here come your muzungus” or something about ‘her muzungus’. Some people said it in a friendly and happy way. Others said it in a bad way and were negative toward her because of our friendship. That’s not fair.

We definitely didn’t intend to cause problems or negative feelings.  Hopefully those feelings didn’t last. Maybe they will forget about ‘us muzungus’ and be better friends again. 

 

Timothy in his new hat and shirt!

 
 

 

Honesty is the best policy

My most favorite shirt EVER!!

"Don't lie to your mom, tell her you're at The Library.  Sports grille and brewery"

Oh - not that I've really spent a lot of time studying at the library before, but that sounds like a fantastic place!! I'll go to that library!

Are you Selling??

There's a lot of people that go around town carrying stuff for sale.
Clothes, material, flags, decorations, food, etc.

One day, after picking up many orders from Sara, I had my arms full. I didn't want to use a bag (I'm kind of against having so many plastic bags) and my arms were REALLY full.

As we were walking back to the hotel to put our items away, we got weird looks, per the usual. One lady, as we were making our way around her, asked me

 "Are you selling?!"

That got a laugh out of us. No.... I am not selling. I just had to buy all this stuff per my family's requests.

It would be really interesting to see a muzungu selling stuff though. hehehehe