UGANDA AT LAST!!!

  My new little friend, Malco. We shared a lot of laughs and then he blessed me with pee all over my lap....or at least that is what the women told me as they giggled. 

Sorry for those of you following my blog that I have not had a chance to check in. Internet is spotty and I had an overnight of travel. Senegal was great and I am now in Uganda. About two hours after I arrived at the hotel in Kampala, we went to join in on breakdance lessons with Breakdance Project Uganda (B.P.U.).
It was so fun learning from the B-girls and boys. I have a killer "Baby Freeze" now, along with a really sore neck....ouch! I can't wait to work with them again at the orphanage. Today we toured the Acholi Quarter with Life in Africa and got to know some of the members of the organization. I honestly thought I would be overwhelmed with sadness for the Acholi community, but I was pleasantly surprised. I really connected with the women and felt very welcome. Instead of sadness, I felt total joy today! We laughed, we danced and we shared stories about our families and community instead. We spend a good part of tomorrow with the same women. I hope to learn more about their needs and desires so I can find out how I can best be of help when I return home. I look forward to sharing more photos tomorrow when I am not so exhausted. Must get rest!!!

Missing Marvin!

Our sweet dog Marvin passed on today. He put in 13 good years and will be greatly missed! I'm sad that I can't be with Cookie and the girls today to give them all big hugs. Overwhelmed with a mix of emotions, I'm finding it hard to blog about my visit to the Île de Gorée. Check out Gina's blog for a little more insight on our day. I'll leave you now with a few pictures....

Where Do I Begin?

So many random things happened today, that I don't know where to start....

 

                        ...perhaps the lovely bathroom in the Sendaga Market where                                          our guide led us? The rustic wood door was a nice touch!

Or maybe the love birds at our hotel at breakfast?

The beautiful children and colorful fabrics?

The funky transportation?

The factories? 

I am not sure where to start, but I am going to end with some fun new friends we made at the hotel. Abdou, on the left, is a local who recently moved back home from an 11 year stint in the United States. He's going to graciously show us around tomorrow. Nice break for me as he is very fluent in English. Daniel, on the right, is from London and is on a road-trip adventure from Morocco to the Congo to find the remote Lake Tele where there is legend of a loch ness type creature called the Mokele-Mbembe. 

Wow...I wonder who we will meet tomorrow?

We Made It!!

After a long 20 some odd hours of travel, Gina and I are safely in our lovely beach front hotel in Dakar, Senegal.....freaking AFRICA!!!! Thank goodness karma was on our side......

We had a really easy flight to Salt Lake City and made our only tight connection of the whole trip with time to spare. We were in the clear, or at least that is what we thought. Our ten hour flight to Paris was fine too, although my sweet row of seats all to myself turned into sleeping quarters for an infant. Lucky me! 3 movies and 15 minutes of sleep later, Gina and I find ourselves in the Paris airport with a serious case of jet lag. After a bight to eat and a little blogging we found ourselves some cosy little couches attached to the cafe. We had a very long layover, so we had grand plans of taking a little power nap, perhaps getting a pedicure, playing some Bananagrams, reading, maybe sleeping some more and then getting over to our gate with plenty of time to make our connection. Little did we know, we would pass out amongst screeching chairs, intercom announcements and some crazy repetitive loud banging noise for nearly 4 hours. I was 3 sheets to the wind when I heard a low groggy voice calling my name and asking me what time it was. Gina had luckily awoken to use the restroom and just happened to see the clock on her way back to continue napping. It turns out we had exactly 25 minutes to wake up, pack up our yoga mats, pillows and other belongings strewn all over the place and book through security, on a train to the correct terminal. Miraculously, we made our flight even though we were 2 minutes past the scheduled departure time. Phew!

After all of that chaos, our driver was at the airport as scheduled, we made it to the hotel in time to sit at the outside restaurant and enjoy some Beef Bourguinon with bananas, a glass of wine and the peaceful sound of ocean waves. Hopefully Gina's bag will arrive tomorrow!