If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...

No, I didn't give any cookies to any mice--one, because cookies don't exist here and two because if I had a cookie, I would be eating it. However, it is harvest season so the rodents are fleeing into our house. Three have been spotted this week--one in our bedroom last night right before sleepytime. Guess how much sleep I got last night...ugh...We named this one Henry. He was pretty cute, but I would prefer he were in a cage or dead.

This week has been exhausting and full of new experiences. On Monday, we had a party for Janessa's birthday. At 8, the power went out and suddenly I discovered that Uganda has about a zillion more stars than America. It was amazing. We found a glowworm. The boys also decided that it would be a good idea to try to slide down the hill on cardboard boxes. The next morning their bodies discovered that it wasn't.

On Tuesday I we went to the fair for the first time. Fair = trade show with some really sketchy rides. I got sick off the of the food, but it was fun. We went back today and I got a ton of really cool souvenirs and also learned how to bargain. Unfortunately, a lot of it was actually Kenyan stuff because Ugandans aren't very crafty...but I still got an egg with a map of the world etched on it for two dollars. Oh, and Christina and I rode a camel. It was the scariest thing I did today.

Yesterday our housekeeper taught us how to make chipatis, which are like fried tortillas. It was really fun and I burned myself with hot oil. Now I can fry anything. Last night we had seven people in the kitchen making dinner, which was really, really, really fun until Dale decided to break out the raw goat meat. I didn't stick around for that bloody mess. And speaking of bloody messes, we're going to kill one of the pigs soon and have a roast out in the yard. It's gonna be AWESOME.

Oh, and on Sunday I had a dance party in a tree. See, when I'm at school, I de-stress by having dance parties. So I was up in a tree listening to music and I really couldn't help myself. A few minutes later, I saw all seven little boys, Hollenbeck and Ugandan, sneak out into the yard in a line and hide behind the potato pile. Now they won't let me live it down.

School this week has been interesting. I think I'm going to try to cut down on it and switch the days I go to each school. At Nkokunjeru, the kids are really hilarious, but they are ready to push each of my buttons that doesn't understand Runyankole. I'm trying to learn all of their names. If anybody has ideas on how to keep a class quiet while you're grading their work, I'm up to hearing them. On girl wrote me a letter. The first three paragraphs were about how much she loved me and the last was asking for school fees. I just didn't know what to do with it.

At Bible Baptist, the kids are actually pretty similar though they push a lot less buttons. One of the kids made me a really cool ball of plastic bags. A P3 girl gave me a cookie and a P1 boy gave me a crumpled piece of roll. I had to eat it even though I had no idea where it had been. At the end of one P1 class, the kids were crowding around me and I tried to teach them some games. One little girl suddenly thrust her hand in my armpit and exclaimed, "It is water!!" *rolls eyes* They are really cute, though.

I have had two experiences with Ugandan tea. The first is really hot, oily milk. The second is a porridge that tastes a lot like cream of wheat.

I lied to a boda driver this week to avoid a marriage proposal, and I feel no guilt. As soon as he asked if I was married, I told him I had a boyfriend in the states. He still tried to sway me to take him as a Ugandan husband, but I told him my big, strong, tough boyfriend would be angry if I married an African man while I was away. Besides, the driver overpriced me. I'm not really a fan of riding bodas.

I was a little homesick until I took a nap yesterday. I dreamed that I went home and all the basketballs were deflated--so I couldn't play--, there was a new table in the kitchen, and my ex had moved in while I was away. Suddenly I don't really want to go home anymore.

I took Micah Hollenbeck's copy of the 7th Harry Potter book, so I'm actually really content here now.

My chacos are my new best friends. 

The 4 weekers leave tomorrow, which is sad, but it will lift a little stress. I'll soon have a room to myself for about a week, and then another short termer girl will get here and move in with me. Maybe by the time she's here, the mice will be gone. We'll see.

Osibe gye! --also know as "spend your day well"