fact: I'm in Uganda. Finally. The two and a half day plane ride seemed longer than the two months I was home after China, mostly because it was spent at Heathrow and British people can't handle a light dusting of snow. Thus, the city was shut down, and I paid eight pounds for a hummus plate at the airport.

the dirt here really is as red as it looks in National Geographic, and the leaves really are as green. Kampala is big and poor with the few token amenities of a developing African city. Such as this internet cafe, which you should not count on for frequent blog updates. The first few days I slept in the car every time we went somewhere, so it seemed as though we simply magically appeared at places around the city. It wasn't until yesterday that I became slightly less disoriented. I was trying to find the hospital (just to check it out, no tropical diseases yet!) and walked into a large slum, which was eye-opening to say the least.

there aren't really private taxis here, just minibuses that pick you up and drop you off along the main streets. Everyone dresses really formally and looks upon Americans as "dirty." And, something pharmacies in the US do not tell you when you pick up malaria medication in the states is that it doesn't actually do much to prevent it, so I have that to look forward to (I have a bed net, mother) . One of my friends studied in Tanzania last semester and said that every single person on her program got malaria, but they treated it in time to cure it.

awesome!

the food is GREAT. It's so different from China, where I half-dreaded every meal. I think food has a lot to do with how welcome you feel in a country. Indian food is pretty much universal, along with matoke, which is mashed plantain served with beans and ground nut sauce. So good so good!

I love it here.