Jinja

Ok, clearly that did not work. Hopefully we will get to be able to put up pictures eventually. If anyone has a tip on how to make the picture files smaller on my macbook, let me know.

Ashley and I are now on our way back to Mbale from the Kingfisher Safaris Resort in Jinja. We took a chicken-bus to get here, and it was ^%&^**%*% hot!! The system here is to wait until the bus is completely full before it goes, so you get on and you have no idea how long you will sit in the bus. We sat for one hour. Which apparently was not too bad. We did in fact have chickens right behind us, and while the lady assured us they were tied, their wings reached under our seats and tickled our ankles from time to time. We were the only mzungus on the bus. All kinds of little kids yell out 'Hello Mzungus, how are you?' wherever we go. It is quite cute. Some of them come up and curtsy as well.

We have had a nice refreshing break and I did in fact put my feet into the Nile River, though I did not have a Nile beer in my hand at the time. It was great to see my fellow students who have been elsewhere and there was a lot of talking the first night as we all got caught up. Ashley and I have the sad distinction of seeing the most stillbirths so far. This has been very hard and we spend a lot of time talking about what we can possibly do to make this better in Mbale during our short stay there.

On our way out of Mbale, we stopped to visit TASO (The Aids Support Organization), who are doing some wonderful work to support HIV-positive people. They have four main goals: counselling, medication, socioeconomic support, and research. Look them up. They are a part of the reason that Uganda has reduced the spread of HIV more than many other countries so far.

We will be catching another chicken bus soon and hope to be in Mbale before supper time (it's noon now).