Last day in Uganda

We woke up to the loud thuds of raindrops pelting the tin roof of Marley's doghouse.  Oh no! We never thought about rain.  We thought about buying our 40,000 Ugandan Schilling tickets ( 20 bucks) the day before.  We thought about which taxis we would have to get on in order to get to the bus park.  We thought to  charge our ipods and pack our bags. We even thought enough to  buy a loaf of bread and jar of nutella for the journey (great call on our part).  We did not however, think about rain.  It has only rained like once since we've been here. Why does it have to rain on the day when we have to get up at five in the morning and walk up a small mountain with all our luggage to the paved road where the taxis drive.  Today definitely would have been one of those days where I just go back to sleep and enjoy the sounds of nature until I needed food, but we have a bus leaving at 6:15 that we have to be on.  So we trek out into the downpour in our sandaled feet up the muddy road in the pitch black.  We make it to the partially paved road where we normally catch taxis to town but the street is deserted.  Not even the crazy boda boda drivers are out trying to hound us for rides.  We keep walking toward the road that has more pavement on it.  We see a couple of our boda drivers uncomfortably keeled over their motorcycles sleeping ( I always wondered where they all went at night).  The main road has only a few more people on it and the cars pass too slowly for my liking.  A taxi stops with the conductor motioning us in, but when the door slides open we see it is already full (by our standards at least) and most definitely would not accommodate our huge backpacks and us.  I begin to think we will not make it the bus station on time.  If we couldn't fit in a taxi I thought we would just get a private hire, but none of them were out because of the rain, along with the rest of Uganda, so now we didn't know what to do.  We wait on the curb and watch cars pass us by as we get soaking wet.  Finally another taxi stops and there is one seat available in the front so we just throw our bags in and then cram ourselves in around them.  I think Tyler hit this woman in the face with his backpack.   It was a relief to get to the station and learn that the bus had been slightly delayed, which figures, because we were definitely slightly delayed getting there on time.  It was a good last memory of Uganda and our time there.

So we made it to Kenya smoothly and were collected by our friends from nazareth hospital.  We have spent the last couple of days resting and relaxing on the compound of nazareth which has a breathtaking view of the african countryside.  The nuns who work here have fed us well, they make some of the best chapatti ever,  and kept the fridge stocked with Coca-Cola, the bottled kind with real sugar in it mmm.  We ventured out today in Kenya's finest public transportation, the wonderful matatus, much are like Uganda's taxis but with twice as many people.  We are currently sitting in this nice little cafe drinking milkshakes and trying to plan out our short stay in London on monday and tuesday of next week before we head to Barcelona to meet up with our friends.

We will most likely come back here on saturday to use the internet so if you want to skype us we should be on during the morning in the U.S. 

E

This pic describes our whole experience in Africa better than words ever will

Sorry for the long delayed post.  Being busy and having internet problems has stopped us from posting updates, pictures and videos.  Here's a quick update of the last few weeks.

• After being in Kampala, Uganda for only a few days we headed north to a village called Gulu, which was practically destroyed a few years ago by the LRA, and and IDP (Internal Displacement) Camp just outside the village.  Our contacts in Gulu work for a ministry called Favour of God.  We learned much about Gulu from them and much about their school and church, etc.  It was amazing to see God at work there an the people praising Him!  They drove us around and treated us very well the few days we spent with them.
• With only one day to relax in Kampala after Gulu we moved east and hour to Jinja.  It is here that we participated in "possibly the best rafting in the world" on the Nile River!  We had an awesome day on the river and met some nice Brits and Aussies that night at the lodge.  We wasted no time between rafting and our next adventure which was bungee jumping over the very rapids we rafted the day before.  It was one of the most fun things I've ever done and if you can find a place to jump that is as awesome as this one I suggest you try it!
• Since then we have pretty much just been hanging out in Kampala riding botas, playing football (futbol) with street kids, and watching Season 2 of the OC at Brandie's.  We are trying to contact people in Nazareth outside of Nairobi, Kenya to spend a few days before flying out of Nairobi on the 1st and starting the Europe phase of our trip.

Hopefully posts will not be so few and far between in the future, but we won't promise anything! 

T

A long Beggining

So we made it to Africa.
But it took a long time. We set off from my home in Norfolk on the morning of the 2nd and headed for D.C. to catch our flight to London. Our flight started at 7 p.m. and we arrived at 7 a.m. London time. We flew Virgin Atlantic which I will highly recommend. they give you a little bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste and socks for your journey, very cool. We had a couple hour layover in London so we got our bags and found a spot to hang out in the airport before our Turkish airways flight began checking in. I used my new British cell phone charger that worked wonderfully. When checking in began we noticed that pretty much everyone was in a long discussion with the attendants, not looking too happy. When it was our turn they told us that Istanbul had been "snowballed" and our flight had been heavily delayed. But after some finagling they put us on a direct flight to Nairobi at 7 p.m that night on Kenyan Airways. They were actually very helpful people, we look forward to our return flight through Istanbul with them. But that left us with about ten hours to kill. We looked into taking the tube to the city but it was too expensive for the amount of time we had. So we walked around and found some comfortable chairs in this coffee shop and literally sat there for like six hours. London airport was basically no fun. We watched the sun rise into an apparently typical cloudy day in the U.K. and then watched it set, but really just noticed it wasn't there anymore, because we never actually saw the sun. We finally made it onto our last flight eight hours down to Nairobi. This was a good flight for sleep which we both got a lot of. We set down in Kenya.
This is the end of our planning. From here on out we are just hoping that things will work in our favor, or at least don't kill us. We find a cab (guys yelling at us to get in their cab, one guy yelled louder) and tell the man where we need to go. He falls asleep in traffic and I have to literally shake him to wake him. He takes us to the wrong place. I try again to tell him the name of the bus company and he shakes his head. We pay the man and thank him for his excellent service; our next mission is to get a bus ticket to Kampala, Uganda. There is a bus at 10 a.m. (its about 9 a.m.) which is perfect, but what isn't perfect is we didn't exchange enough money at the airport to pay the bus fare. The nice woman points in some obscure direction where we can change our American dollars to Kenyan shillings. We walk for a short bit and realize how lame we look with our confused expressions and giant packs strolling though the very busy downtown Nairobi (don't worry,everyone else realised it too). We see a sign with an American dollar symbol and it directs us up a narrow staircase to a woman sitting behind this little cage. She took our money and gave us the correct amount of Kenyan money all while this man kept poking Tyler and calling him friend. Yes it was really sketch but very memorable, so thats good right. So we made it on the bus and settled in for a 13 hour trip to Kampala. It was relatively comfortable and felt safe (which is quickly becoming a priority). The bus definitely broke down for a while though which made our trip 15 hours. We are learning how to roll with the punches. We get to Kampala at 1:30 a.m. where (thank God) our friends are waiting for us ( and had been waiting for us for three hours) and drive back to Brandie's house. We made it! It was soo nice to be around people I know and not have anything else to do for a while. We took some very rejuvenating showers and slept.
The next morning we had delicious french pressed African coffee and peanut butter toast ( our new staple). We then walked to the road and caught a matatu (very tight packed bus) to the slums where Brandie works throughout the week with street kids ( kids with no one looking after them). We hung out with kids, helped teach them how to use was and were in English, bandaged up wounds, and filmed them rapping for us (all African kids are in love with cameras). We then went to the park and played some frisbee and soccer with one of Brandie's Ugandan friends Jude, just as the sun was setting over Kampala. It was one of those settings where it is so easy to be thankful for where you are and how the Lord has brought you there. We left the park and stopped at the store for dinner preparations. We ate chicken and rice and had some Niles (Uganda's local beer). It was a great first day in Uganda.
We woke up today to rain which pretty much stops everything because everyone has to walk everywhere and have had a relaxing morning with more coffee and peanut butter toast. We are heading to Gulu (northern Uganda) tomorrow to check out some orphanages and see what the more rural side of Uganda is like. We're working on a video that should be up soon but we are on Africa time now so soon doesn't mean much.
Until Then,
E

side note: My phone works over here which is crazy and I have G chat on it so if you would like to talk to us for free get a gmail account and friend me (evanstory@gmail.com) and we can chat it up.

seee yaa

its our last night in the states and this is a little goodbye vid.

we're heading to D.C in the morning for our flight to Nairobi, Kenya